The 12th wrestling freestyle championships for small countries and regions start on Friday at the Corinthia Jerma Palace Hotel in Marsascala. The opening ceremony at 6.30 p.m. will be followed immediately by the first session of elimination bouts.

The championships will continue on Saturday at 9.30 a.m. and if need be on Sunday as well.

Competition is open to countries or regions with populations below five million. Six teams confirmed their participation so far, namely, Georgia, Jimalo-Nenetskogo, Cha-Iakutia, Sicily and Malta.

Georgian wrestlers will be figuring for the first time in the championships but for Jimalo-Nenetskogo this will be another participation to follow the various ones of past editions.

The International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles has entrusted the organisation of the championships to the Malta Amateur Wrestling Federation since 1993. It was the latter, notwithstanding their limited resources, who originated the idea of holding such an event which now forms part of the international calendar.

Past editions of the championships have lured to our country Russian champions and others who ranked as high as fourth and fifth in the Olympic Games.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.