The International Wrestling Federation has decided that the Under-23 World Championships will not be held in Tampere.
Matti Lehtisaari,
STT Sports
The under-23 world championships in wrestling will be moved away from Tampere. The International Wrestling Federation (UWW) announced the decision in a letter to the Finnish Wrestling Federation on Tuesday.
According to the press release of the Finnish Wrestling Federation, UWW justifies its decision by the fact that Finland cannot guarantee an equal opportunity for athletes from all participating countries to participate in the competition.
In practice, this means persons traveling with Russian or Belarusian passports.
The Finnish Wrestling Federation, together with the Nordic and Baltic federations, has opposed the reentry of Russia and Belarus into international competition.
The interpretation of the International Wrestling Federation is that it is possible for the international sports federation of each sport to include individual Russian and Belarusian athletes in their competitions as “neutral athletes without national emblems”. Therefore, traveling with a passport of a certain country should not be an obstacle to participation.
Finland disappointed with the decision
Chairman of the Finnish Wrestling Association Pekka Paavola is disappointed that Painiiliitto’s advocacy work in the matter did not produce the desired result.
– We are very disappointed with the situation, although we knew how to expect it. We were asked to do things that are not in our control, Paavola said Painiliito’s press release.
Paavola tells STT that “3-4 countries” are candidates to replace Finland. The games have been moved to a country where Russians and Belarusians do not need a visa or are guaranteed to get one.
The under-23 World Championship was scheduled to be held on the 23rd-29th. October The competition calendar of the International Wrestling Federation is so tight that the date is unlikely to change.