Nikolay Yakovenko
Nikolai Ivanovich Yakovenko (Russian Николай Иванович Яковенко, scientific transliteration Nikolai Ivanovich Yakovenko; born November 5, 1941 in Rostov-on- Don, † 22 December 2006) was a Soviet wrestler. He won in the Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1968 Olympic Games and 1972 respectively and a silver medal in 1967 and 1969 world champion in the heavyweight division.
Career
Nikolai Yakovenko grew up in Rostov -on-Don on where he started as a teenager with the rings. He was throughout his career in the sport club VS Rostov and developed into a world-class wrestler in Greco- Roman style. However, it took until 1967, at which time he was already 26 years old until he was able to prevail in the Soviet Union in his weight class. Although he won at the prestigious Ivan Poddubny tournament in Moscow in 1967 at light heavyweight behind Vasily Merkulov only the second place, but was nonetheless nominated for the World Cup this year in Bucharest.
In Bucharest, he was able to convince at first and defeated among others the world-class wrestlers Ferenc Kiss from Hungary and Martinescu Nicolae from Romania. Two draws against Bojan Radev from Bulgaria and Per Svensson from Sweden then gave him the title. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, he was regarded as world champion of course as a favorite. He also won four fights, struggling against Bojan Radev again draw. Radev had after the fighting but less faulty points as Yakovenko and thus became Olympic champions, while it had to settle for the silver medal.
At the World Championship 1969 in Mar del Plata to Nikolai Yakovenko brought in the heavyweight division then his second world title. He hit it again Nicolae Martinescu and came in the final battle against Stefan Petrov from Bulgaria to a draw, which was enough to win the title to him. At the World Cup 1970 in Edmonton Nikolai Yakovenko get to three wins against Ferenc Kiss and Per Svensson only draw what threw him back to 3rd place behind these two wrestlers.
In 1971, Nikolai Yakovenko did not qualify for international championships. At the World Championships this year in Sofia Vasily Merkulov was used, but could not convince and finished only fourth place.
1972 Nikolai Yakovenko managed in the Soviet Union the way back to the top. He started in the spring at the European Championships in Katowice, where he was also the first time European champions. The best-known athletes who he beat Marin Kolev here were from Bulgaria and Andrzej Skrzydlewski from Poland. At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Nikolai Yakovenko then wanted to get the gold medal, which he had missed in 1968. He was with five victories on the way to this medal and met in the final battle to Nicolae Martinescu, whom he had at previous competitions always defeated. Ironically, but in the Olympic final, he defeated Martinescu and had to settle for the silver medal again.
After Nikolai Yakovenko was in any international championship more at the start. He was replaced in the Soviet Union Nikolai Balboschin.
International success
(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship, Hs = light heavyweight until 1969-97 kg body weight, S = Heavy weight, from 1969 up to 100 kg body weight)
Swell
- Journal athletics from 1967 to 1972
- Documentation of International Wrestling Championships FILA, 1976
- Website " www.iat.uni -leipzig.de "