Head coach of the Armenia freestyle wrestling youth team Avetik Vardanyan in a conversation with the ANOC press service summed up the World Junior Championship ended in Tallinn, Estonia.

“As you know during the European Youth Championship half of the team had injuries and we performed with the reserve lineup. Two of the wrestlers injured during the World Championship were recovered and we included them in the lineup hoping they would improve their shape at that period bringing it to the best one. The World Championship showed that they had improved it but it wasn’t close to the best. I refer to Vazgen Tevanyan and Hovhannes Maghakyan. Vazgen had undergone a hand operation and Hovhannes had broken his leg before the European Championship. Vazgen lost not only because of his physical condition though it wasn’t too bad but because of the tactical mistakes he made. He had no right to make such mistakes, he is an experienced wrestler. We had warned him not to repeat them but he did it and was punished.”

Avetik Vardanyan was pleased with Vrezh Gevorgyan’s result. “I’m pleased with Vrezh Gevorgyan at 57 kg, he participated better than I expected. He had placed second in the Armenian Championship. But, bravo, he could spend fine bouts.”

Speaking about the refereeing at the World Championship Vardanyan said they didn’t have to impute blame on somebody, even on referees.

“There was no refereeing mistake in the 74 kg weight class. We had trusted Davit Gevorgyan both during Junior and Youth Championships but he hadn’t lived up our hopes. At the trainings he shows himself well but fails at championships. There was a little flaw at 61 kg but I don’t like imputing blame on referees. Hrachya Margaryan is a European champion and didn’t have to allow equalizing the bout to become dependent on referees’ decision then and a victim of unfair refereeing. I always blame us; there is no need to seek for others’ guilt.”

At the end Avetik Vardanyan spoke about the change in the youth team lineup.

“The season is over. Starting from this year the team changes, we are going to have a new one and work from the very beginning. Cadet team’s Lyova Gevorgyan at 92 kg is a real candidate for the youth team (2019 European cadet champion, world championship bronze medalist), the rest are good wrestlers too. We need to pin our hope on everyone and work with everyone. We’ll participate in 2-3 international tournaments with the new team, we’ll try to discover their strong and weak sides, there is still time. The change of age group is a difficult process as in the cadet group they wrestle 2 rounds and 2 minutes while in the youth group – 3 minutes,” Avetik Vardanyan said.

Earlier at the World Championship four freestyle wrestlers had fought for bronze medals but failed to win one.