Wrestler Georgy Rubaev placed 5th in the Kazakhstan World Championship.
He started with a clear 10-0 victory over Chinese Xiao Sun, but then was defeated by future finalist Iranian Alireza Karimimachiani. Georgy Rubaev defeated the Ukrainian Liubomyr Sagaliuk in the re-qualification match and lost to Russian Alikhan Zhabrailov, with a 2-3 score in the match for the bronze medal. Even though he entered top 5, Rubaev did not secure a place at the Tokyo Olympics, as the 92 kg weight category is not Olympic.
Other three Moldavan wrestlers, Mihai Eșanu (61 kg), Nicolae Ceban (97 kg) and Alexandr Romanov (125 kg) performed in the re-qualification matches, yet lost.
Moldovan wrestlers have two more chances to reach the Tokyo Olympics. The European qualifiers will take place in Budapest from March 19 to March 22, while the last clashes will take place during the world qualifying tournament between April 30 and May 3, in Sofia.
