Vitaly Viktorovich Konstantinov

Witali Wiktorowitsch Konstantinow ( Russian Виталий Викторович Константинов; born March 28, 1949 in Kalmajur , Ulyanovsk ) is a former Soviet wrestler . In flyweight (Greco-Roman style) he won the gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

Career

Vitaly Konstantinov began wrestling in adolescence. After the first major successes at national level, he was delegated to "Dynamo" Ulyanovsk . There he was shaped by his trainer A. Winnik into an outstanding wrestler in the Greco-Roman style. Witali was relatively tall for a flyweight and often seemed a bit awkward due to his long limbs. But that he was not, he proved in 1971, when he won 3rd place in the flyweight category behind Klim Olsojew and S. Aliew at the Völker Spartakiad of the USSR, which was extremely important . He was then accepted into the Soviet national wrestling team.

In 1972 Witali came to his first appearances at international championships. At the European Championships this year in Katowice he achieved six victories, including a very remarkable one against Petar Kirow from Bulgaria , but was defeated somewhat surprisingly in the final against Jan Michalik from Poland and was therefore “only” vice European champion. Witali was nevertheless nominated for the Olympic Games in Munich that same year . There he disappointed himself and the Soviet sports officials, because after a victory over an Egyptian wrestler he was defeated by the Japanese Koichiro Hirayama and the Italian Giuseppe Bognanni and ended up in 13th place, which was indisputable for him.

Since Witali had become Soviet champion again in 1973, he was used despite his failure at the Olympic Games at the World Cup in Tehran . In this championship he defeated Koichiro Hirayama and also the Romanian favorite Nicu Gângă this time , but lost again to Jan Michalik and won no medal with 4th place.

In 1974 Witali was not used in any international championships. But since he had prevailed at the Soviet championships against Vakhtang Blagidze and Kamil Fatkulin in 1975 , he could not be ignored by the Russian Federation in the nomination for the world championship in Minsk . This time Witali also justified the trust placed in him and became world champion . He owed this title to the South Korean Baek Seung-hyun , who shouldered the Turkish Bilal Tabur , to whom Vitali had lost on points. Witali had also scored a shoulder win against the Korean.

In 1976 Vitali achieved the greatest success of his career, as he became Olympic flyweight champion in Montreal . But he made things very exciting again, because he lost again to Koichiro Hirayama in a preliminary round match. Since he was eliminated prematurely, Witali five wins were enough to win the gold medal . Among the wrestlers he defeated were Nicu Gângă and Rolf Krauß from Ludwigshafen .

After his Olympic victory, Vitali did not start at any international championships. In 1980 he made a comeback and was used at the European Championships that year in Prievidza in the bantamweight division. Also in this championship he lost another fight, namely against the German champion Pasquale Passarelli . But since Passarelli had to retire before reaching the finals and Witali won his five other fights, he became European champion . Despite this success, Vitali was not used at the Olympic Games in Moscow . He had to watch as his old rival Shamil Serikov became Olympic champion there.

Then Vitaly Konstantinow ended his wrestling career.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Fl = flyweight, Ba = bantam weight, back then up to 52 kg or 57 kg body weight)

• 1972, 1st place , tournament in Klippan / Sweden , GR, Fl, before Baikow, Bulgaria , Heinz Schmidt , GDR a . Ole Sörensen, Denmark ;
• 1972, 2nd place , "Nikola Petrow" tournament in Sofia , GR, Fl, behind Petar Kirow , Bulgaria a. in front of József Doncsecz , Hungary ;
• 1972, 2nd place , EM in Katowice , GR, Fl, with victories over Josef Hutter, Switzerland , Lajos Rácz , Hungary, Paul Schneider, FRG , Giuseppe Bognanni , Italy , Miroslaw Zeman , Czechoslovakia a . Petar Kirow et al. a loss to Jan Michalik , Poland ;
• 1972, 1st place , Göteborg Cup, GR, Ba, ahead of Todorow, Bulgaria a. Leppänen, Finland ;
• 1972, 13th place , OS in Munich , GR, Fl, with a victory over Abdelfattah Ibrahim, Egypt a . Losses against Koichiro Hirayama , Japan a . Giuseppe Bognanni;
• 1973, 4th place , World Championship in Tehran , GR, Fl, with victories over Jemran Monhochir, Mongolia , Koichiro Hirayama, Nicu Gângă , Romania and others. József Doncsecz u. a loss to Jan Michalik;
• 1975, 1st place , World Championship in Minsk , GR, Fl, with victories over Diego Lo Brutto, France , Lajos Rácz, Haralambos Holidis , Greece and Baek Seung-hyun , South Korea and others. despite a loss to Bilal Tabur , Turkey ;
• 1976, 1st place , tournament in Klippan, GR, Fl, before Krassimir, Bulgaria a. Per Lindholm , Sweden;
• 1976, 1st place , "Nikola Petrow" tournament in Sofia, GR, Ba, ahead of Stefanow, Bulgaria, Ivan Frgić , Yugoslavia , Ion Dulica , Romania a. Wladyslaw Pakuszewski, Poland;
• 1976, gold medal , OS in Munich , GR, Fl, with victories over Antonio Caltabiano, Italy, Nicu Gângă, Julian Mewis , Belgium , Beak Seung-Hyun u. Rolf Krauss , FRG a. despite a loss to Koichiro Hirayama;
• 1978, 1st place , Grand Prix of the FRG in Aschaffenburg , GR, Ba, ahead of Mihai Boțilă , Romania, Benni Ljungbeck , Sweden, Piotr Michalik , Poland a. Pasquale Passarelli , FRG;
• 1979, 1st place , "Nikola Petrow" tournament in Sofia , GR, Ba, ahead of Mihai Boțilă, Romania a. Donew, Bulgaria;
• 1980, 3rd place , Grand Prix of the FRG in Aschaffenburg, GR, Ba, behind Mihai Boțilă u. Wladyslaw Pakuszewski, Poland a. before Benni Ljungbeck, Julian Mewis u. Pasquale Passarelli;
• 1980, 1st place , EM in Prievidza , GR, Ba, with victories over Wladyslaw Pakuszewski, Mihai Boțilă, Árpád Sipos , Hungary, Benni Ljungbeck u. Julian Mewis et al. despite a loss to Pasquale Passarelli

swell

• Trade journal "Athletik", Nos. 2/1972, pp. 7–8, 5/1972, pp. 9–11, 8/1972, p. 32, Olympia special number, p. 13, 1/1973, p. 32, 4/1976, p. 32, 8/1976, p. 5
• Trade journal "Der Ringer", Nos. 4/1978, p. 6, 3/1980, pp. 4–5, 5/1980, pp. 5–11
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships of the FILA, 1976, p. E-84, O-93, W-111, W-125 u. O-98

Web links

• Profile of Witali Konstantinow at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Witali Konstantinow in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )