Ismail Abilov

Ismail Abilow, Bulgarian Исмаил Абилов, ( born June 9, 1951 in Lopushna ) is a former Bulgarian wrestler Turkish descent. He was Olympic champion in 1980 in Moscow in free style at middleweight.

Career

Ismail Abilow was a member of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria. There he was as a teenager to wrestle and was delegated already in the junior age for Sport Club Slawia Sofia due to its sporty outlook. He developed into an outstanding wrestler in free style. Its premiere at the international wrestling mat he gave in 1971 at the Junior World Championships in Nagoya. He reached there in free style in the weight class up to 75 kg body weight behind the Iranians A. Esamaiii an excellent 2nd place. Also in the European Junior in the Yugoslav Hvar he was very successful. He won there before the German Frank Birch in the weight class up to 75 kg body weight.

For a start to the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Ismail Abilow could not qualify. But he was in 1973 at the World Championships in Tehran at the start and won in the middleweight division with four wins and a draw against Olympic champion John Peterson from the USA the bronze medal.

In the years 1974 and 1975, he came runner-up world champion at the World Championships in Istanbul or Minsk. In 1974 in the light heavyweight and middleweight in 1975. In the final battle he lost in Istanbul against a greats of freestyle wrestling, Levan Tediaschwili from the USSR and in Minsk against one of the best German freestyle wrestler of all time, Adolf Seger from Freiburg im Breisgau. He could at these championships but so good wrestler like Kurczewski Pawel from Poland, Iorga, Vasile from Romania, Mehmet Uzun of Turkey and Benno Paulitz from the GDR defeat.

Very strong senior Ismail Abilow also at the European Championships of 1975 and 1976. 1975 he won in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, the middleweight title with seven wins. In the decisive battles he won here over Gunter Spindler from the GDR, Vasile Iorga and Mehmet Uzun. In 1976 he succeeded at the European Championships in Leningrad even a victory over the Soviet Viktor Nowoschilow starter, but he was defeated in the final battle again against Adolf Seger and became vice - European champion.

At the Olympic Games in Montreal in 1976 he won the middleweight first against two weaker opponents and against Vasile Iorga, but then lost to Mehmet Uzun and Viktor Nowoschilow and therefore only landed on the 5th Place.

Good recovered from this disappointment started Ismail Abilow again in 1977 at the European Championships in Bursa. He won six fights, and there was again European Champion. In this of him, inter alia, Defeated István Kovács from Hungary, Jarmo Övermark from Finland and Hassan Zangijew from the Soviet Union. At the World Championships this year in Lausanne, he had very bad luck. He was injured in his first battle against István Kovács and had to retire.

Due to this injury Ismail Abilow fell out also for the whole year of competition in 1978 and was only able to go in the World Cup in the fall of 1979 in San Diego back to the start. In San Diego, he managed only one victory. He lost to István Kovács and Soviet wrestler Magomedchan Arazilow and retired after the 3rd round. He thus reached only the 7th Place.

Ismail Abilow however, managed to bring in the winter of 1979/80, again in excellent shape. This was already evident at the European Championships in April in the Czech Prievidza. He reached there again six wins in a row and was the third time European champions. With Oleg Kalojew he defeated them one Soviet top wrestler. He was then not be beaten in the Olympic Games in Moscow. Although lacking the strong U.S. freestyle wrestler, but with wins over Magomedchan Arazilow and István Kovács was his Olympic victory more than deserved.

After the 1980 Olympic Games Ismail Abilow launched in 1981 only in the so-called " Super World Championships " in Nagoya, an event without major sporting value and was third behind Christopher Campbell, United States and Akiro Ohta, Japan there. Then Ismail Abilow ended his career as an active wrestler. He attended the National Sports Academy in Sofia and was Ringer coach in Bulgaria. Began under communist government of Todor Zhivkov mid-1980s, he managed to escape to Turkey. There he lived under the name Ismail Nizamoğlu and is also active as a wrestler trainer.

International success

(all competitions in free style, OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, Middleweight, then up to 82 kg, light heavyweight, then up to 90 kg body weight)

Swell

• Journal athletics. No. 8/ 1980.
• Journal The wrestler. 06.07.1977, pp. 9-10, 11/ 1977, p 7-8, 9 /1978, pp. 12, 5/ 1980, p 10-11, 8/ 1980, p 9
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships FILA. 1976 S. E -108, E -112, O -106, W -109, W -119, W- 132.
• International Wrestling Database of the Institute for Applied Training Science at the University of Leipzig