Zakaria Chihab

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Zakaria Chihab (born March 5, 1926 ) is a former Lebanese wrestler . He won a silver medal in the Greco-Roman style bantamweight at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics .

Career

Immediately after the Second World War , a strong wrestling team emerged in Lebanon , which won several medals in the Greco-Roman style at several international championships. Zakaria Chihab also belonged to this team. Other successful wrestlers of those years in Lebanon were Khalil Taha , Safi Taha , Charif Damage and Elie Naasan . Strangely, this strong team emerged in the Greco-Roman style, while this was not the case in the free style. Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire until the end of the First World War and a French mandate between the First and Second World Wars. In both Turkey and France , the free style was primarily cultivated at that time. If the Lebanese wrestling sport of those years were to go back to Turkish or French influences, these wrestlers would have had to wrestle in free style. However, the Greco-Roman style was cultivated in Egypt since the 1920s . In Ibrahim Moustafa , this country even had an Olympic champion in this style in 1928 . So it may well be that Greco-Roman style wrestling came to Lebanon from Egypt.

Zakaria Chihab first appeared in an international championship in 1950. He started at the World Championships in Stockholm . He suffered two defeats there in the bantamweight division: first he lost to the 1948 Olympic champion Pietro Lombardi from Italy and then to Erkki Johansson from Finland . He finished 11th.

He was much more successful at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki . He won there in the bantamweight over Ion Popescu from Romania , Maurice Faure , France , Arvo Kyllönen from Finland and sensationally also over Artjom Terjan from the Soviet Union . He lost against Imre Hódos from Hungary and won an Olympic silver medal . With this medal he is the most successful Lebanese wrestler of all time.

Zakaria Chihab also competed in the 1953 World Cup in Naples . There he won the bantamweight over Karl-Heinz Bauer from Saarland , which at that time belonged to the international wrestling association (FILA) as an independent federation, and again over Maurice Faure. Since these were point wins and he was burdened with a missing point for each of these point wins, he was eliminated after a defeat in his third fight against Giovanni Cocco from Italy , for which there were 3 missing points, because he had reached the necessary number of five points . He finished 6th.

After this world championship he no longer appeared on the international wrestling mat.

International success

year space competition Weight class
1950 11. World Cup in Stockholm Bantam after losing to Pietro Lombardi , Italy and Erkki Johansson, Finland
1952 silver OS in Helsinki Bantam with wins over Ion Popescu , Romania , Maurice Faure , France , Arvo Kyllönen, Finland and Artjom Terjan , USSR and one loss against Imre Hódos , Hungary
1953 6th World Cup in Naples Bantam with victories over Karl-Heinz Bauer, Saarland and Maurice Faure and one defeat against Giovanni Cocco , Italy

swell

  • Athletics magazine .
  • Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976.
  • Database of the Institute for Applied Training Sciences at the University of Leipzig.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Chihab, Zakaria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lebanese wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1926