First Hungarian Gold Medal Won at European Wrestling Championships

Ismail Musukaev won the gold medal at the European Wrestling Championships in Budapest after defeating Haji Aliyev of Azerbaijan in the final.

Musukaev’s first appearance in Hungarian colors was at the 2019 World Championships and has been representing the country ever since. Interestingly, he was born in Russia and was attending sports events for his home country before 2019. Musukaev already won a bronze medal for Hungary at the world championships.

He won the final 12:1 in the category of freestyle 65 kg.

I’ve come a long way, I’ve had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get here. I would like to thank the whole of Hungary for giving me the opportunity to make my dream come true, and I am grateful to the spectators who created a magical atmosphere, their encouragement meant a lot. Of course, I could not have known beforehand how the match would turn out, I had to do everything I could to win. I will try to do my best to be even closer to the crowd in the future,”

said Musukaev.

But this was not the only Hungarian medal at the European Championships: another Russian-born wrestler representing Hungary, Vladislav Baitcaev, won a silver medal. Baitcaev won in the freestyle 97 kg classification, with a result of 11:5. The match was won by the Russian-Azerbaijani, Magomedkhan Magomedov.

He fought against a very strong opponent, and he was not an underdog,”

said Konstantin Gulevsky, the Hungarian national team’s coach, about Baitcaev.

He needed very little to tip the scales in his favor. He was preparing all day for this match, he wanted to win, that’s why this silver medal is a bit bitter for now. He needs some time to process the loss.”

Featured photo by Tamás Kovács/MTI