On May 25th Baku, Azerbaijan hosted the European U-23 Freestyle Wrestling Championship, where Arsen Balayan played for the Russian national team. Arsen took the 3rd place in the weight category up to 79 kg.
In the final bout for the bronze medal, Arsen Balayan from Kaliningrad defeated Italian Raffaele Matrullo with the help of an early knockout.
At the beginning of the first period Arsen put the Italian on two blades (touché), and the referee of the bout fixed the touché and gave the victory to the Armenian.
Before that, Arsen took part in 3 more bouts, but unfortunately, he lost in the semifinals to the future European champion, the Greek - Georgios Kougiomtsidis, with the score 3:1.
This is the first big international tournament for Arsen, and it is already a great progress for him. He showed a high level and in the future will be a strong competitor to many strong wrestlers of the world, and even will be able to take the highest degree of the podium at the European and World Championships.
