The Riga European Championship for Junior category, presented itself as the stage for the battle where Nikita Melkinov defeated the Armenian Artur Aleksanyan.
Melnikov achieved the impossible, surpassing his opponent by a 4-point difference. After a session of struggle where none of the wrestlers fell to the ground, Artur was penalized and taken to the par terre position (with all four limbs on the ground), and it was at that moment that Nikita applied a souplesse that gave him four points.
From there, Artur took it more seriously, but it was clear that he had underestimated his opponent and was distracted. Artur had not been defeated in two years in a competition of this caliber. Despite his superiority in size, he ended up frustrated and defeated, making it clear that he was not giving it his all in the first bouts of the fight.
With this result, Nikita Melnikov remains in first place in the 98kg Greco-Roman wrestling category, with second and third place for Artur Aleksanyan and Ghasem Rezaei. It is the surprise of the month so far in the list of monthly rankings that UWW awards to the top positions in other weight and style categories in international competitions.
It is important to note that this championship does NOT qualify for the Olympics. The representative wrestler from Russia in the 98kg Greco-Roman wrestling category for Rio 2016 is Islam Magomedov.