The first Olympic qualifying tournament for wrestlers was held in Serbia. Alexandru Burca and Mariana Esanu scored the best results there, IPN reports.

They both won bronzes, but only the first two ranked in each weight class qualified for the Rio Olympics.  The misfortune of Burca and other wrestlers was that they met future winners on their way to the final. Anatolii Buruian, Nicolae Ceban and Igor Besleaga also competed for bronze medals.

Donior Islamov, one of the fittest Greco-Roman wrestlers, refused to continue the competition after losing to the future champion Sanal Semenov of Russia.

The next qualifying tournaments will take place in Mongolia on April 22-24 and in Turkey on May 6-8. The competition in Mongolia will involve wrestlers who haven’t competed in Serbia. Among these are the medalists of the Baku European Sports Games Piotr Ianulov and Alexandru Chirtoaca.