site.btaUPDATED Five Bulgarians Reach Finals of Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov International Wrestling Tournament in Sofia

Five Bulgarian wrestlers qualified for the finals in the opening day of the 60th International Tournament Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov, which takes place in Levski Sofia Sports Hall in the Bulgarian capital. 

Konstantin Stas, member of the Bulgarian national team, (72 kg) won against Japanese Kaya Yoshida and qualified to the finals with a categorical 10:0 win. He will face Shahin Mofrad (Iran).

Abu Muslim Amaev is the next member of the Bulgarian national team (63 kg), who qualified for the finals after his victory over Abdurrahman Altan with 3:0 win.

Svetoslav Nikolov (82), on the other hand, failed to reach the final after losing a very controversial match with Exauce Mukubu (Norway). After a number of judges' views in the last seconds, the victory was awarded to the Norwegian at 10:10 and last points. Also unable to reach the final was Rosian Dermanski, who was eliminated in the same 82kg category against Burhan Akbudak (Turkiye).

Akhmed Bataev became the first Bulgarian freestyle finalist after winning a categorical 9:2 victory against Andrian Grosul (Moldova). He will face Arashk Mohammadkazem (Iran) in the final of the 92 kg category, who defeated Tatsuya Shirai (Japan) 7-0. Ramazan Ramazanov earned a far more controversial 7:6 victory against Amir Mohammad Yazdani (Iran) and will play for the 70kg gold against Servet Coskun (Turkiye).

Bulgarian Georgi Vangelov (61) lost in the semi-finals after a 1:2 defeat against Intigam Valizada (Azerbaijan) in a match that caused a lot of dissatisfaction from the stands against refereeing decisions.

In the last bout of the evening Mimi Hristova beat Albina Kairgeldinova (Kazakhstan) and will compete for gold against Naomi Ruike (Japan).