With 83 athletes from 16 nations, including 33 women and 54 males, the third leg has been the biggest leg of the tour so far and the first day’s action enthralled the people watching as the UWW’s fastest growing discipline continues its rapid progression. It was a fantastic day one amongst the roses in Roses Park, let’s see how the action unfolded.

Yuliia ZASULSKA (UKR) had reached the bronze medal match and finished fourth last time out in Saint-Laurent-du-Var in the women’s 50kg, but it’s been a tough day for the Ukrainian as she lost her opening two group stage matches. The first to Nicoleta Cristina BAJAN (ROU) and second to Alevtyna LIASHENKO (UKR) and she will find it hard to come back from that. Her teammate and compatriot Viktoriia SLOBODENIUK took gold in the second stop, and she will be much happier with her day’s efforts as she beat Romanians Ana Maria PIRVU and Andreea VRACI in her opening two matchups. Pirvu (ROU) did bounce back from her defeat to Viktoriia SLOBODENIUK (UKR) to beat Szabina Gabriela LENARD (ROU).

In the women’s 60kg, Ukrainian Anastasiya KRAVCHENKO has been in fine form winning gold at the last leg, and her form continued on the first day of the third leg of the Beach Wrestling World Series. She won both her opening group matches to give her a great chance of making the elimination matchups. First, she defeated Slovenian history-maker Mihaela CIRIC before ending her day with a win over her teammate Sofiia BORDINSKYKH, winning both bouts within the 3 minutes and dropping only a point in doing so. It looks like it could be difficult for Ciric (SLO) to match her bronze in Saint-Laurent-du-Var as she also lost her second matchup of the groups, losing to Egyptian Farah Ali Hamada Mohamed HUSSEIN. Sofiia KUSHNIR (UKR) is always in the mix for ranking points and medals, and this time looks it to be no different as she won her two openers over Victoria BAEZ (ESP) and 2021 Champion Francesca INDELICATO (ITA).

Oksana HERHEL (UKR) picked up the silver in Saint-Laurent-du-Var to keep her overall Series lead and the 2023 champion showed her usual consistency and power to pick up two wins from two with victories over Slovenian Sara TRBULIN and Paula Aurelia Izabela ROTARU (ROU) in the women’s 70kg. Dimitra ANDROUTSOU (GRE) continued her rich vein of form that saw her take bronze last time out with two wins of her own as she toppled leg 2 winner Viktoriia HRYTSENKO (UKR) as well as 2022 Beach Wrestling World Series champion Adina Ionela IRIMIA (ROU). Hrytsenko got back to winning ways in the second matchup of her group with a win over compatriot Olena NIKITINSKA.

“The Bomb” Eliana BOMMARITO (USA) shows no sign of stopping in the women’s +70kg division as she tore through the field on day one taking a combined total of 80 seconds to win her two difficult matchups. BOMMARITO (USA) took just 35 seconds to dispatch Stefania ZACHEILA (GRE), then only 45 seconds to beat Iryna PASICHNYK (UKR). There were also a pair of wins for both Florentina Georgiana BIRU (ROU) and Aikaterini Eirini PITSIAVA (GRE). Biru (ROU) beat Agoro PAPAVASILEIOU (GRE) and Liudmyla PAVLOVETS TYCHYNA (UKR). Pitsiava (GRE) also defeated Pavolets Tychyna and Papavasileiou in her two bouts.

There was an opening group stage shock in the men’s 70kg division as defending champ Oleksii BORUTA (UKR) lost out to impressive Azerbaijani Rashid BABAZADE, but the Champ did bounce back to make it 1 win and 1 loss as he defeated American Mitch Brown. Babazade (AZE) continued to impress in his second match as he put Vasileios KESIDIS (GRE) to the sword exactly a minute into their matchup to take him to two wins from two. Current ranking points overall leader Justin BENJAMIN (USA) stayed in Europe after Saint-Laurent-du-Var, and his experience training and fighting with some top-class European opposition saw him come into this leg confident of success. He’s halfway there after he also picked up a couple of opening group wins.

Men’s 80kg World Champion Hugo CUENOT (FRA) will be hoping he’s back to full fitness soon as injury saw him lose his opening two bouts when he picked up an injury only 20 seconds into his match with Hunter James GARVIN (USA) and hadn’t recovered in time to face Ramiz HASANOV (AZE). Hasanov (AZE) himself had picked up a win in his opener over Ion Laurentiu MARCU (MDA). Moldovan gold medallist from the last leg Vasile DIACON maintained his performance levels with two wins from two with victory over Alberto MARTINEZ NAVARRO (ESP) and Miljan RAJIC (SRB). Ahmed Khaled Mohamed MAHMOUD of Egypt also looked in good form with 2 wins of his own.

Ibrahim YUSUBOV (AZE) was gutted to only get silver in Saint-Laurent-du-Var as he was hit with a 3 point move from Traian CAPATINA (MDA) in the gold medal match, and the Azerbaijani Men's 90kg division world champion will be a lot happier today as he avenged that defeat in his opening group match before a win over Ukrainian Nazar DOD. Capatina (MDA) bounced back with a win of his own over Christos SAMARTSIDIS (GRE). Moldovan Alexandru BORS was making his Beach Wrestling World Series debut, and he has every reason to go to bed happy with his efforts tonight with 2 debut day wins including a win over Oleksii YAKOVCHUK (UKR).

Men’s +90kg World Champion Fatih YASARLI (TUR) had yet to make an appearance in the Series this year having missed the opening two legs, but the popular Turkish athlete quickly found his sand legs again as he opened the leg with two wins from two. Mamuka KORDZAIA (GEO) looks to be Yasarli’s main obstacle to the gold this time round, and the Glorious Georgian kept right on the champ’s tail with 2 wins of his own. Kyle “Fun Time” Ferriter (USA) looked to have enjoyed himself in his opening bout against fellow American Gabe RANGEL as he picked up the win. Rangel (USA) will be disappointed but the American had a nightmare trip to Timisoara the day before with his original flight being cancelled due to the worldwide IT outage. Only just making it to Romania midnight the day before competition after he managed to secure a standby ticket on a later flight. Ferriter’s (USA) joy was short lived though as he lost to another American in the shape of Nikolas Andrew STEMMET, who is making his Beach Wrestling World Series debut. He had earlier defeated the only Syrian athlete at the event Omar Ihab SAREM and looks set for the elimination matches. Sarem (SYR) did pick up a win with victory over Rangel (USA) in both men’s second trip to the sandy circle of the day.

There’s still plenty of twist and turns to come on the final day of the third stop when the sand starts to fly as the group stages are completed and the qualifiers take part in the elimination rounds where the kings and queens of Roses Park will be crowned. It promises to be a special day in Timisoara. Can’t be sandside? Keep up with all the best of the action live on the Beach Wrestling World Series YouTube channel.