Vitaly Konstantinov

Vitaly Viktorovich Konstantinov (Russian Виталий Викторович Константинов; born 28 March 1949 in Kalmajur, Ulyanovsk ) is a former Soviet wrestler. In the flyweight ( Greco-Roman style) he won in 1976 at the Summer Olympics in Montreal, the gold medal.

Career

Vitaly Konstantinov began at a young age with the rings. After the first major successes at the national level, he was delegated to " Dynamo" Ulyanovsk. There he has been shaped by his coach A. Winnik an outstanding wrestler in the Greco - Roman style. Vitaly was relatively large for a flyweight and worked through his long limbs, often somewhat awkward. That he was not, he proved in 1971 when he won the 3rd place in the flyweight behind Klim Olsojew and S. Aliyev at the Fifth Peoples Spartakiade the USSR, which had an extremely high priority. He was then taken into the Soviet Ringer's national team.

In 1972, Vitaly then already in his first stakes in international championships. At the European Championships this year in Katowice him reach six wins, including a very remarkable about Kirov Petar from Bulgaria, but he was defeated, somewhat surprisingly in the final battle against Jan Michalik of Poland, and was therefore "only" European vice-champion. Vitaly was still nominated for the Olympic Games the same year in Munich. There, however, he disappointed himself and the Soviet sports officials, because after a victory over an Egyptian wrestler he lost against the Japanese Koichiro Hirayama and the Italian Giuseppe Bognanni and ended up in 13th place indisputable for him.

As Vitaly had become 1973 again Soviet master, he was employed despite his failure at the Olympic Games at the World Championships in Tehran. In this championship, he defeated this time though Koichiro Hirayama and also the Romanian Favorites Nicu Ganga, but lost again against Jan Michalik and won the 4th place again no medal.

In 1974, Vitaly was employed in any international championship. As he had in 1975, but prevailed in the Soviet championships against Vakhtang Blagidse and Kamil Fatkulin, he could not be ignored by the Russian Federation in the nomination for the World Championship in Minsk. Vitaly justified this time also the trust placed in him and became world champion. Thank for he had this title, of course the South Koreans Baek Seung -Hyun, who had lost to the Turks Bilal Tabur, against Vitali on points, shouldered. Against the Koreans Vitaly had previously also achieved a shoulder victory.

1976 succeeded Vitaly then the biggest success of his career, because he was in Montreal Olympic champion in the flyweight. Here, however, he made ​​the whole thing again very exciting, because he lost in a first round fight back against Koichiro Hirayama. However, since this excluded prematurely, Vitaly ranged five victories to win the gold medal. Among the defeated wrestlers from him was back Nicu Ganga and the Ludwigshafen Rolf Krauss.

After his Olympic victory Vitaly started first with no international championships more. But in 1980 he made a comeback and was used at the European Championships this year in Prievidza bantamweight. In this championship, he lost a fight again, namely against the West German champion Pasquale Passarelli. Since Passarelli but had to retire before reaching the finals and Vitali won his five other fights, he was European champion. Despite this success, Vitaly has not been used at the Olympic Games in Moscow. He watched as his old rival Shamil Serikow was Olympic champion there.

After Vitali Konstantinov ended his wrestler 's career.

International success

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, European Championship EM =, GR = Greek and Roman. Styles, Fl = Flyweight, Ba = bantamweight, then 52 kg and 57 kg body weight)

Swell

• Journal " athletics ", Nos 2/1972, pp. 7-8, 5/ 1972, p 9-11, 8/ 1972, p 32, Olympic special edition, pp. 13, 1/ 1973, p 32, 4/1976, pp. 32, 8/ 1976, p 5
• Journal " The Ringer ", Nos. 4/1978, pp. 6, 3/ 1980, p 4-5, 5/ 1980, p 5-11
• Documentation of International Wrestling Championships FILA, 1976, pp. E-84, O- 93, W -111, W -125 and O -98