Serafim Barsakov

Serafim Barzakow 2014

Serafim Barzakow medal table
Wrestler
Bulgaria
Olympic games
silver	2000 Sydney	feather
World Championship
gold	1998 Tehran	feather
gold	2001 Sofia	feather
silver	2003 New York	Light
silver	2005 Budapest	Light
European Championship
silver	1995 Friborg	Bantam
gold	1996 Budapest	Bantam
bronze	1997 Varna	feather
gold	1998 Bratislava	feather
silver	1999 Minsk	feather
bronze	2000 Budapest	feather
gold	2001 Budapest	feather
gold	2005 Varna	Light
bronze	2006 Ankara	Light
bronze	2007 Sofia	Light
Junior European Championship
silver	1993 Götzis	Bantam Juniors

Serafim Barzakow Iwanow (born July 22, 1975 in Kolárovo , Blagoevgrad District , Bulgaria ) is a Bulgarian wrestler . He became world champion in Tehran in 1998 and in Sofia in 2001 , European champion in Budapest in 1996 , in Bratislava in 1998 and in Varna in 2005, and won a silver medal in free style in featherweight and lightweight at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney .

Career

Serafim Barzakow started wrestling in 1981 at the age of six. After initial successes, he was delegated to Levski-Spartak Sofia and is now a member of Slavia-Litex Sofia . He is or was mainly trained by Georgi Stoitschkow and Iwan Zonow and is only active in free style. The 1.70 meter tall athlete started at bantamweight and grew from featherweight to lightweight. His profession is a wrestler. He pursued this profession mainly in Germany , because he has been wrestling in the German Bundesliga since the late 1990s, among other things. a. at KSV Germania Aalen , KSV Köllerbach and 1. Luckenwalder SC . He won his first medal at an international championship at the Junior European Championship in 1993 in Götzis / Austria, where he won the bronze medal in bantamweight behind Rowschan Gadschiew from Azerbaijan and ahead of the German Jens Gündling .

In 1994 it was used for the first time in Istanbul at an international senior championship. He left there early and was placed on 11th place with all wrestlers who were eliminated so early. At the 1995 European Championships in Friborg / Switzerland , he also won his first medal in the senior class. He came in second behind Aslambek Fidarov from Ukraine . At the World Championships that year in Atlanta , he reached only 15th place in bantamweight.

In 1996 he won his first title at the European Championships in Budapest . He defeated there in the bantamweight Laurent Gaineton from France , Georgi Gagishvili from Georgia , Alexander Gusow from Belarus and in the final Harun Doğan from Turkey and thus became the title holder. At the Olympic Games in Atlanta Serafim Barzakow disappointed, however, he only won there against the Australian Corey O'Brien and lost to Ri Yong Sam from North Korea and Sanshiro Abe from Japan and only reached 12th place.

In 1997 he came in 3rd place at the European Championships in Varna , starting in featherweight for the first time. He was defeated by Elbrus Tedejew , a North Ossetian starting for the Ukraine , against whom he was to fight many tough battles in the following years. At the World Championships that year in Krasnoyarsk , he reached 5th place in bantamweight. In this championship he scored five wins, but lost to Mohammad Talaee from Iran and Guivi Sissaouri , a Georgian naturalized in Canada .

The most successful year in Serafim Barzakow's career was 1998. He was European featherweight champion in Bratislava and defeated there u. a. Jürgen Scheibe from Germany , Elbrus Tedejew and Sergei Smal from Belarus . At this year's World Cup in Tehran , he defeated top athletes such as the American Cary J. Kolat and the Iranian Abbas Haj Kenari and again Elbrus Tedejew and Sergei Smal. With that he became world champion for the first time .

In 1999 he could not repeat these successes. After all, he finished 2nd at the European Featherweight Championships in Minsk after losing just under points (2: 3 technical points) after four victorious fights against Elbrus Tedejew . Also at the 1999 World Cup in Ankara he lost to Elbrus Tedejew (3: 5 technical points), but since this happened in the quarter-finals, he only came in 5th place in the final score.

At the European Championships in Budapest in 2000 Serafim Barzakow won third place in the featherweight division with four wins. In the semifinals he was beaten by the Russian Murad Umakhanov . Against the same wrestler he then lost at the Olympic Games in Sydney in the final fight of the featherweight controversial on points (2: 3 technical points), but at least won the silver medal . Before that he had defeated such strong wrestlers as Jürgen Scheibe , Ruslan Bodisteanu from Moldova , Carlos Julian Ortiz Castillo from Cuba and Mohammad Talaee .

In 2001 Serafim Barzakow repeated his great successes of 1998. He was European champion in Budapest and world champion in the featherweight division in Sofia . In Budapest he won the final battle over Soslan Tomajew from Russia and in Sofia he defeated a. a. Elbrus Tedejew , Otar Tuschischwili from Georgia and Alireza Dabir from Iran.

From 2002 Serafim Barzakow started in the lightweight and won six medals at the World and European Championships in the following years. At the Olympic Games in 2004 and 2008, however, he only finished 8th and 11th. In 2005 he won his fourth European title in Varna , where he defeated Elman Asgarow from Azerbaijan in the final. He won this title in three weight classes (bantam, feather and lightweight). In those years he could no longer defeat Makhach Murtasalijew and Irbek Walentinowitsch Farnijew from Russia, as well as Ramazan Şahin from Turkey and, most recently, Otar Tuschishvili.

His last start in an international championship was at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing . The future will tell whether he will continue to be seen on the international wrestling mat in the future.

In 2011 Serafim Barsakow tried a comeback, which he broke off after two tournaments.

After the final end of his wrestling career, he became the head coach of the Bulgarian national team for women.

International success

year	space	event	Weight class
1993	2.	Junior European Championship (Juniors) in Götzis / Austria	Bantam	behind Rowschan Gadschiew, Azerbaijan , in front of Jens Gündling , Germany
1994	9.	Junior European Championship (Espoirs) in Kourtane / Finland	Bantam	Winner: Aram Margarjan, Armenia ahead of Harun Doğan , Turkey
1994	11.	World Cup in Istanbul	Bantam	Winner: Alejandro Puerto Diaz , Cuba, ahead of Mohammad Talaee , Iran and Bagautdin Umachanow , Russia
1995	2.	EM in Friborg / Switzerland	Bantam	behind Aslambek Fidarow , Ukraine , in front of Arif Abdullayev , Azerbaijan, Anuchawan Sahakjan, Armenia u. Harun Dogan
1995	15th	World Cup in Atlanta	Bantam	Winner: Terry Brands , USA ahead of Guivi Sissaouri , Canada a . Harun Dogan
1996	1.	EM in Budapest	Bantam	before Harun Dogan, Arif Abdullayev, Bogdan Ciufulescu, Romania a . Shamil Daibegow, Russia
1996	12.	OS in Atlanta	Bantam	with a victory over Corey O'Brien, Australia a . Losses against Ri Yong Sam, North Korea a . Sanshiro Abe , Japan
1997	3.	EM in Varna	feather	with victories over Pasi Kohtala, Finland, Serban-Florian Mumjiev, Romania a. Lucjan Gralak, Poland , a defeat against Elbrus Tedejew , Ukraine a. Wins over Stefan Fernyak , Slovakia a . Oleg Gogol, Belarus
1997	5.	World Cup in Krasnoyarsk	Bantam	with a victory over Corey O'Brien, a defeat against Mohammad Talae, victories over Sanshiro Abe u. Michele Liuzzi, Italy a . Karo Simonjan, Armenia, a loss to Guivi Sissaouri u. a win over Jung Jin-Hyuk, South Korea
1998	1.	EM in Bratislava	feather	with victories over Ruslan Bodisteanu , Moldova , Alexei Solowjew, Russia, Jürgen Scheibe , Germany, Elbrus Tedejew u. Sergei Smal , Belarus
1998	1.	World Cup in Tehran	feather	with victories over Karim Makhlouf, France , Cary J. Kolat , USA, Sergei Smal, Elbrus Tedejew a . Abbas Haj Kenari , Iran
1999	2.	EM in Minsk	feather	with victories over Karim Makhlouf, Ruslan Bodisteanu, Elman Asgarow , Azerbaijan, Serban-Florian Mumjiev u. a loss to Elbrus Tedejew
1999	5.	World Cup in Ankara	feather	with victories over Martin Calder, Canada, Carlos Julian Ortiz Castillo , Cuba a . Lucjan Gralak u. a loss to Elbrus Tedejew
2000	3.	EM in Budapest	feather	with victories over Serban-Florin Mumjiev, Istvan Dencsik, Hungary a. Elman Asgarow, a defeat against Murad Umakhanov , Russia a. a victory over Mehmet Yozgat , Turkey
2000	silver	OS in Sydney	feather	with victories over Jürgen Scheibe, Ruslan Bodisteanu, Carlos Julian Ortiz Castillo a. Mohammad Talaee et al. a loss to Murad Umakhanov
2001	1.	EM in Budapest	feather	with victories over Istvan Dencsik, David Laprince, France, Besik Aslahaschwili, Greece a. Soslan Tomayev, Russia
2001	1.	World Cup in Sofia	feather	with victories over Koce Nikolow, Macedonia, Carlos Julian Ortiz Castillo, Aristos Alexandridis, Greece , Otar Tuschischwili , Georgia , Elbrus Tedejew u. Alireza Dabir , Iran
2002	5.	World Cup in Tehran	Light	with victories over Mehmet Yozgat, Aristos Alexandridis a. Northern Shanghai in Bajarmagnai , Mongolia , u. a loss to Elbrus Tedejew
2003	4th	EM in Riga	Light	with victories over Geworg Hovannisjan, Armenia, Laszlo Szabolcs, Romania a. Ruslan Bodisteanu and defeats against Elbrus Tedejew a. Ömer Cubukcu , Turkey
2003	2.	World Cup in New York City	Light	with victories over Alireza Dabir, Ahto Raska, Estonia , Stefan Fernyak, Evan MacDonald, Canada a. Serguet Rondon Pedroso, Cuba a. a loss to Irbek Farniev , Russia
2004	8th.	OS in Athens	Light	with a victory over Evan MacDonald u. a loss to Leonid Spiridonov , Kazakhstan
2005	1.	"Dan Kolow" tournament in Sofia	Light	before Wadim Guigolajew, France, Ayetullah Yesil u. Mehmet Macit, bde. Turkey
2005	1.	EM in Varna	Light	with victories over Adrian Mazan, Poland, Laszlo Szabolcs, Albert Batirow , Belarus, Suren Markosjan, Armenia a. Elman Azgarov
2005	1.	Ziółkowski tournament in Siedlce / Poland	Light	before Wiktor Belokopiti , Ukraine, Masoud Vahedi , Iran a. Gregory Sarassin, Switzerland
2005	2.	World Cup in Budapest	Light	with victories over Gregory Sarrasin, Switzerland, Masoud Vahedi, Otar Tuschischwili u. Leonid Spiridonow et al. a loss to Makhach Murtasaliev , Russia
2006	3.	EM in Ankara	Light	with victories over Ljulzim Vrenezi, Macedonia a. Peter Engelhardt , Germany, a defeat against Machatsch Murtasalijew u. a victory over Otar Tushishvili
2006	5.	World Cup in Guangzhou / China	Light	with victories over Apostolos Taskoudis, Greece a . Arslan Chutaliew, Uzbekistan, a defeat against Otar Tuschischwili, a victory over Shirayr Hovhannisjan , Armenia a. a loss to Andrei Stadnik , Ukraine
2007	3.	EM in Sofia	Light	with victories over Koba Kakaladze, Georgia a. Miroslaw Dikun, Great Britain , a loss to Irbek Farnjiew u. a victory over Emin Azizov , Azerbaijan
2008	3.	"Yasar-Dogu" Memorial in Ankara	Light	behind Yasin Bolat, Turkey u. Emin Azizow, Azerbaijan, together with Shamil Abdullajew, Russia
2008	5.	EM in Tampere	Light	with victories over Matej Gardos, Slovakia a. Apostolos Taskoudis u. Losses against Ramazan Şahin , Turkey a. Rasul Jukayev, Russia
2008	2.	Olympic qualification tournament in Martigny / Switzerland	Light	behind Mehdi Taghavi , Iran, in front of Albert Batirow u. Suras Markosjan, Armenia
2008	11.	OS in Beijing	Light	with a victory over Jung Young-Ho, South Korea a. a loss to Otar Tushishvili
2011	3.	"Wacław-Ziółkowski" Memorial in Poznan	up to 66 kg	behind Soslan Ramonow, Russia and Adam Sobiraj, Poland
2012	2.	"Dan Kolow" & "Nikola Petrow" Memorial in Sofia	up to 66 kg	behind George Bucur, Romania, in front of Dejan Mitrow, Macedonia and Leonid Basan, Bulgaria

swell

• Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig,
• Trade journal Der Ringer ,
• Websites of the US, Bulgarian and German wrestling associations

Web links

• Profile of Serafim Barsakow at the Institute for Applied Training Science