BLACK BEATEN IN QUARTERFINALS, AKIN LOSES IN POOL AT FREESTYLE OLYMPIC QUALIFIER IN LEIPZIG, GERMANY, FEB. 12-13Both U.S. competitors were eliminated prior to the medal rounds at the Freestyle Olympic Qualifying Tournament held in Leipzig, Germany, Feb. 12-13.
This event was the second of five freestyle Olympic qualifying events held across the world from January-March 2000.
Dominic Black (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) was defeated in the quarterfinals at 213.75 pounds and eliminated from medal contention. He won his first two matches, then lost in the quarterfinals to former Olympic silver medalist Heiko Balz of Germany, 3-1.
Black placed sixth in the weight class, earning the United States 15 points toward Olympic qualification.
Eric Akin (Overland Park, Kan./Dave Schultz WC) was defeated in his pool competition and did not advance. He won his first match, but was eliminated by Chihara Tanabe of Japan, 8-3.
Akin placed 13th in his weight class of 21 athletes, earning the United States nine points towards Olympic qualification.
Both Akin and Black are ranked No. 1 on the U.S. National Team, and both competed on the 1999 World Championship team.
Nations are only able to enter athletes in weight classes which they did not qualify for during the 1999 Freestyle World Championships last fall. The athletes do not qualify themselves for the Olympic Games; rather, they are qualifying their nation to participate in that weight class.
After all five of the Olympic Freestyle Qualifing events are held, the points for each nation at each weight class are added up. The top three scores for each nation at each weight class are counted toward the final total. The top seven nations at each weight class from the qualifying events will qualify for the Olympic Games.
The United States entered athletes at only two weight classes (119 pounds, 213.75 pounds). The USA has already earned Olympic freestyle qualification berths at six weight classes (127.75 pounds, 138.75 pounds, 187.25 pounds, 213.75 pounds, 286 pounds).
FREESTYLE OLYMPIC QUALIFIER at Leipzig, Germany, Feb. 12-13
54 kg/119 lbs.- 1st - German Kontoev (Belarus), 21 pts.; 2nd - Namik Abduallaev (Azerbaijan), 20 pts.; 3rd - Nurdin Donbaev (Kyrgyzstan), 19 pts.; 4th - Chihara Tanabe (Japan), 18 pts.; 5th - Shankar Patel Kripa (India), 17 pts.; 6th - David LeGrande (France), 16 pts.; 7th - Marjan Naumov (Macedonia), 15 pts.; 8th - Witali Railien (Moldova), 14 pts.; 9th - Thomas Roethlisberger (Switzerland), 13 pts.; 10th - Gotcha Kirkitadze (Georgia), 12 pts.; 11th - Mikhail Japaridze (Canada), 11 pts.; 12th - Haibo Meng (China), 10 pts.; 13th - Eric Akin (USA), 9 pts.; 14th - Amiran Kartanov (Greece), 8 pts.; 15th - Wassili Zeiher (Germany), 7 pts.; 16th - Armen Simonyan (Armenia), 6 pts.; 17th - James Crowe (Canada), 5 pts.; 18th - Recep Zincirci (Turkey), 4 pts.; 19th - Francisco Javier Sanchez (Spain), 3 pts.; 20th - Ali Mohamed Hassan Abu Taleb (Egypt), 2 pts.; 21st - Einban Tchuda (Guinea-Bisseu)
58 kg/127.75 lbs. - 1st - Purevbaatar Oyunbeleg (Mongolia), 21 pts.; 2nd - Evgueni Buslovich (Ukraine), 20 pts.; 3rd - Josip Momsedlidze (Kazakhstan), 19 pts.; 4th - Alexander Gouzov (Belarus), 18 pts.; 5th - Chvitsa Polichronidis (Greece), 17 pts.; 6th - Saeed Azerbaijani (Canada), 16 pts.; 7th - Nazim Alidyanov (Azerbaijan), 15 pts.; 8th - Rouslan Madyinov (Kyrgyzstan), 14 pts.; 9th - Adrian Stratu (Romania), 13 pts.; 10th - Zsolt Bankuti (Hungary), 12 pts.; 11th - Othmar Kuhner (Germany), 11 pts.; 12th - Hiroki Sekikawa (Japan), 10 pts.; 13th - Jae-Myung Song (Korea), 9 pts.; 14th - David LePrince (France), 8 pts.; 15th - Fanming Fu (China), 7 pts.; 16th - Kakhaber Doborjginidze (Georgia), 6 pts.; 17th - Hassan Medani (Egypt), 5 pts.; 18th - Tadeusz Kowalski (Poland), 4 pts.; 19. Talata Embalo (Guinea-Bissaeu), 3 pts.; 20. Gordon Nikolov (Macedonia), 2 pts.; 21. Vivien Boundi (Central African Rep), 1 pt.
63 kg/138.75 lbs. - 1st - Mourat Umachanov (Russia), 24 pts.; 2nd - Ruslan Boudisteanu (Moldova), 23 pts.; 3rd - Stefan Fernyak (Slovakia), 22 pts.; 4th - Serban Mumjiev (Romania), 21 pts.; 5th - Juergen Scheibe (Germany), 20 pts.; 6th - Nikolai Savin (Belarus), 19 pts.; 7th - Goran Trajkov (Macedonia), 18 pts.; 8th - Ismail Boziev (Kazakhstan), 17 pts.; 9th - Robert Khachatryan (Armenia), 16 pts.; 10th - Karim Maklouf (France), 15 pts.; 11th - Elman Askerov (Azerbaijan), 14 pts.; 12th - Lucjan Gralak (Poland), 13 pts.; 13th - Faruk Guezel (Turkey), 12 pts.; 14th - Gregory Sarrasin (Switzerland), 11 pts.; 15th - Istvan Dencsik (Hungary), 10 pts.; 16th - Giovanni Schillaci (Italy), 9 pts.; 17th - Tsogbayar Tserenbaatar (Mongolia), 8 pts.; 18th - Cubos Siga (Guinea-Bisseau), 7 pts.; 19th - Katsuyoshi Ito (Japan), 6 pts.; 20th - Nasir Lal (Canada), 5 pts.; 21st - Surigalatu (China), 4 pts.; 22nd - John Melling (Great Britain), 3 pts.; 23rd - Hermann Kouadio (Ivory Coast), 2 pts.; 24th - Giorgios Moustopolous (Greece), 1 pt.
69 kg/152 lbs.- 1st -Majid Mohammadi (Iran), 27 pts.; 2nd - Ishak Boziev (Russia), 26 pts.; 3rd - Mariusz Dabrowski (Poland), 25 pts.; 4th - Zaza Zazirov (Ukraine), 24 pts.; 5th - Chang-Jun Um (Korea), 23 pts.; 6th - Sergej Demtchenko (Belarus), 22 pts.; 7th - Ivan Diaconu (Moldova), 21 pts.; 8th - Yordan Radev (Bulgaria), 20 pts.; 9th - Ruslan Veliev (Kazakhstan), 19 pts.; 10th - Dima-Ioan Andronic (Romania), 18 pts.; 11th - Zoltan Hunyady (Hungary), 17 pts.; 12th - Sebastian Bourdin (France), 16 pts.; 13th - Sujeet Maan (India), 15 pts.; 14th - Ljulzim Vrenezi (Macedonia), 14 pts.; 15th - Gotcha Papaschwili (Netherlands), 13 pts.; 16th - Takahiro Wada (Japan), 12 pts.; 17th - Sahid Mirzaev (Azerbaijan), 11 pts.; 18th - Carlos Dominguez (Spain), 10 pts.; 19th - Alex Coriano (Puerto Rico), 9 pts.; 20th - Gunar Da Costa (Guinea-Bisseu), 8 pts.; 21st - Jens Gundling (Germany), 7 pts.; 22nd - Alex Raptis (Jamaica), 6 pts.; 23rd - Xuanchong Xu (China), 5 pts.; 24th - Batbayar Buyandelger (Mongolia), 4 pts.; 25th - Joris Stortoni (Belgium), 3 pts.; 26th - Tibor Copik (Slovakia), 2 pts.; 27th - Bennie Labuschagne (South Africa), 1 pt.
76 kg/167.5 lbs.- 1st - Nasyr Gadzhikanov (Macedonia), 26 pts.; 2nd - Gennadi Laliev (Kazakhstan), 25 pts.; 3rd - Ruslan Kinchagov (Uzbekistan), 24 pts.; 4th - Marcin Jurecki (Poland), 23 pts.; 5th - Radion Kertanti (Slovakia), 22 pts.; 6th - Robert Eggertswyler (Switzerland), 21 pts.; 7th - Nurbek Izabekov (Kyrgyzstan), 20 pts.; 8th - Wenyan Zhang (China), 19 pts.; 9th - Salvatore Rinella (Italy), 18 pts.; 10th - Nick Ugoalah (Canada), 17 pts.; 11th - Rvaz Mindorashvili (Georgia), 16 pts.; 12th - Arpad Ritter (Hungary), 15 pts.; 13th - Kenji Koshiba (Japan), 14 pts.; 14th - Bahram Abedi (Iran), 13 pts.; 15th - Victor Dominguez (Spain), 12 pts.; 16th - Thomas Coppola (Great Britain), 11 pts.; 17th - Igor Kozyr (Belarus), 10 pts.; 18th - Mihai Stroia (Romania), 9 pts.; 19th - Celestin Donfack (Cameroon), 8 pts.; 20th - Mactar Sene (Senegal), 7 pts.; 21st - Munkhbayar Tumenulzu (Mongolia), 6 pts.; 22nd - Ian Du Toit (South Africa), 5 pts.; 23rd - Smbat Gasparyan (Armenia), 4 pts.; 24th - Lazaros Loizidis (Greece), 3 pts.; 25th - Braia Pam (Guinea-Bisseu), 2 pts.; 26th - Manuel Garcia (Puerto Rico), 1 pt.
85 kg/187.25 lbs. - 1st - Magomed Ibragimov (Macedonia), 25 pts.; 2nd - Eldar Assanov (Ukraine), 24 pts.; 3rd - Nicolae Ghita (Romania), 23 pts.; 4th - Vincent Aka Akesse (Ivory Coast), 22 pts.; 5th - Gregory Martinetti (Switzerland), 21 pts.; 6th - Igors Samusonoks (Latvia), 20 pts.; 7th - Abbas Majidi (Iran), 19 pts.; 8th - Justin Abdou (Canada), 18 pts.; 9th - Gabor Kapuvari (Hungary), 17 pts.; 10th - Andre Backhaus (Germany), 16 pts.; 11th - Christos Alexandridis (Greece), 15 pts.; 12th - Beibulat Musaev (Belarus), 14 pts.; 13th - Rudolf Voboril (Czech Rep.), 13 pts.; 14th - Anuj Maniar (India), 12 pts.; 15th - Matt White (Puerto Rico), 11 pts.; 16th - Miroslav Gotchev (Bulgaria), 10 pts.; 17th - Kristian Saar (Estonia), 9 pts.; 18th - Mahmed Agaev (Armenia), 8 pts.; 19th - Naranbaatar Lkhagvodori (Mongolia), 7 pts.; 20th - Munhana Clusse (Guinea-Bisseu), 6 pts.; 21st - Egidius Vie