Resurgent Frank Chamizo looking to pin down fifth European Wrestling title

Freestyle wrestling star Frank Chamizo is seeking revenge in the European Championships final on Wednesday (30 March).

After breezing through the early rounds in Budapest, Hungary, the Italian will meet Slovakia’s Tajmuraz Salkazanov in a mouth-watering 74kg gold-medal match clash between the top two seeds.

The last time they met was in last year’s European Championships final, where Salkazanov emerged victorious, 6-2, to take Chamizo’s continental crown.

That Chamizo is even in the final in Budapest will come as a surprise to some.

After a disappointing Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021, that saw the No.1 ranked grappler lose the bronze-medal match 5-0 to USA’s Kyle Dake, he took a seven-month break from competition.

At 29-years-old, many questioned whether Chamizo had the desire to keep performing at the top level.

But as the old saying goes, “Class is permanent.” And so it was that the four-time European champion conceded just three points en route to the final in Budapest.

First up was a 10-2 victory over Georgian Giorgi Sulava. In the quarter-finals, he thrashed Turkey’s Soner Demirtas 5-0, and in the semis, Hrayr Alikhanyan of Armenia never really stood a chance, going down 7-1.

World silver medallist from 2021 Salkazanov goes into the final bout as the slight favourite, but with Chamizo seemingly motivated like never before, this one is simply too close to call.

The action begins at 18:00 local time on 30 March in Budapest’s BOK Sports Hall, and you can follow all the action live on the United World Wrestling website here.