Arvi Savolainen lost the final match to Kiril Milov in the Hungarian European Championships. For Arvi Savolainen, the European Championship silver is the first career in the adult competition.
3.4. 21:14 • Updated 3.4. 21:22
Arvi Savolainen suffered a wrestling European Championship 97kg series final loss to Bulgaria Kiril Miloville. Milov, 25, had already won both the European Championships and the World Championship silver in his career. Now he was able to celebrate gold after winning 4-1 with Savolainen’s points.
For Savolainen, 23, the medal is the first in his career in the general series. At the age of 23, Lahti’s Ahkera wrestler celebrated both World Championship and European Championship gold.
In the first set, Milov was commanded to the carpet and the opening point of the match came to Savolainen. However, Milov defended well, and Savolainen did not get any extra points in the carpet press.
Milov evened the score right at the start of the second set as he pushed Savolainen out of the carpet. Savolainen, on the other hand, was sent to the carpet in the second installment with two minutes left, Milov leading 2–1. In the rug, Milov managed to take Savolainen worth two more points.
Savolainen and Milov had met once before. At that time, Savolainen took an overwhelming point victory from the Bulgarian in the European Championships for under-23s.
– My final opponent Milov is not running, but he is trying to throw right away. So he is a sharp thrower, Savolainen anticipates his opponent on Saturday.
Savolainen went to the European Championships as one of the champion favorites. At the Tokyo Olympics, Savolos lost the bronze medal match to Iran Mohammadhadi Saraville and ranked fifth. Now, three European wrestlers who had reached Tokyo in front of Savolainen were missing from the European Championships.
A Savo patient underwent heart surgery late last year because he had suffered from an arrhythmia problem.
– It’s nice when training is no longer interrupted due to a hospital trip. Now there is one stress factor out of your mind. Now there are no more arrhythmias, Savolainen said before the European Championships.
Savolainen started his European Championship contract convincingly on Saturday. First, he defeated Azerbaijan Murat Lokiajevin 7–1. Then the strengths and skills of the Savonian got to know Greece Laokratis Kessidis, of which Savolainen took an overwhelming points victory 9–0. In the semifinals, Savolainen defeated Austria Daniel Gastlin 4–2.
The latest European men’s wrestling European Championship gold remains Jani Haapamäki profit for 2009. On the women’s side Petra Olli won European Championship gold in 2016 and 2018.
Before the Budapest Games, Finland ‘s previous medal was in 2019, when Elias Kuosmanen wrestling 97-pound European Championship bronze. Today, Kuosmanen wrestles in a heavy series. Kuosmanen’s European Championships were interrupted when he was still rehabilitating his shoulder cut after the Tokyo Olympics.
Finland won two medals in Hungary when Konsta Mäenpää won the European Championship bronze medal in the Greco-Roman wrestling heavyweight series at 130kg on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Mäenpää Championship in Ilmajoki was also the first medal.
The last time the Finnish Greco-Roman wrestling team won two medals in the same championship was 20 years ago, when Marko Yli-Hannuksela and Juha Ahokas won the European Championship bronze medals in Seinäjoki in 2002.