75kg category was a one with many guys whose levels are close to eachother. With left arm the Armenian puller Vrezh Sedrakyan won the gold over Viorel Dobrin from Romania. Viorel had some wars before meeting Vrzeh but he still managed to toproll Vrezh’s wrist but Vrezh’s pressure was too much for Viorel to be defeated.

With the right arm Vrezh had so many battles one after another and he has finished at the bronze medal. Davit Samushia from Georgia pulled very smart and reached the gold. The way that he pulled against Viorel Dobrin was good enough to be a lesson in any armwrestling school. In this class Grigory Valiev from Russia won the silver medal.

70kg was with huge surprises with left arm. Valentin Gospodinov from Bulgaria won the category by beating some of the best pullers in the world. His opponent in the final was Emil Amirshadyan from Armenia. These two pullers looked above the rest of the pullers in this category. But even now it is hard to know what would happen if these pullers would meet for example tomorrow. I say this because Gospodinov won the first match by fouls without anyone really winning. Then in the final Emil won a match but Gospodinov seemed to be late to start. Then in the last match Emil seemed to start very late. So Gospodinov won fair and square but I still don’t know what would be the outcome if they would start the match without making mistakes. Oleg Cherkasov who has been winning the left hand titles for years in WAF and EAC this year pulled in this category and took 10 place. That was a surprise for me.

Same category with the right arm did not have a big surprise about the final match. Khetag Dzitiev from Russia and Arthur Makarov from Russia had some exciting matches for the gold. These two athletes also met in the final of the Russian Nationals and in both events Arthur beat Khetag in their first meet but Khetag came back and win twice to win the gold. In this category Tabriz Safarov from Azerbaijan surprised me with his great performance. Right from the beginning he went to losers’ side after having a few minutes long hook match against Gogita from Georgia but Tabriz was able to reached 4 place and missed the medal.

In 65kg Jambul Vibliani at his mid 40s showed once again that why he is a true Legend of our sport by winning double golds over the guys who are young enough to be his sons. His tough opponents from last year’s WAF Gaydarjiev and Cherkassov have changed category but this does not take anything away from his greatness.

Vileni Gabrava from Georgia looked too strong for his opponents in 60kg left hand category. He beat everyone comfortabily including the great Gaydarjiev. The other Georgian Imeda Chincharauli also looked very strong in this category and he took 3 place.

In 60kg right arm the biggest surprise was Gaidarjiev who is the current WAF Champion in 65kg to take 12. place. Ashot Adamyan from Armenia won the gold over Vileni Gabrava from Georgia.

In 55kg Levani Pogosiani from Georgia with left arm and Alex Pretsuahsvili from Georgia with right arm won the gold. This year the Russians did not seem to be so powerful in this class.

I can say that Russians are losing their leadership to Georgians for sure in men’s categories. As far as i know Georgia won the team Trophy over Russia in senior men category. Winning 10 golds out of 22 weight categories is an amazing job to do while Russia winning 4 golds. I don’t how much difference there will be at the World Championships but i believe Georgians will still win the most golds in senior men classes. Zoloev Hadzimurat has big chance to win 90kg at Waf. Maybe Artem Taynov will have chance to win 85kg left hand class. Maxim Filipov who is the winner of the 75kg left hand class at Russian nats may win the gold at WAF. But except Zoloev’s category other two categories are not the ones that Georgians won. Also there will be Kazakhstan guys will change the things as well. For example 70kg right hand class that Russia won in this EAC is the class that Kazakh puller Zair Akhmedov has been winning in last 2 years and Zair has been defeating Khetag in the finals of the last 2 years.

Next WAF will be fun to watch!