With the beautiful Black Sea setting a stunning back drop, day 1 of the penultimate leg of this year’s Beach Wrestling World Series got underway in front of a vibrant crowd. There was that special beach wrestling vibe in the air, where 78 contenders took to the Sandy Circle with 41 men and 37 women taking part. Here in Romania this year were also debutant teams from Norway and Germany for the greatest show on sand. With its fast, frantic action, easy to understand scoring system and magical settings, it’s no surprise that beach wrestling’s popularity keeps growing at a meteoric pace, and if today’s action is any indication, then it’s showing no signs of stopping.

In the Women’s 50kg Emine CATALOGLU (TUR) came into this leg only 900 points behind the Princess of Power, Stefania PRICEPUTU (ROU) in the rankings, and with the Romanian champion not taking part this leg, the opportunity to close the points gap was handed to Emine. She breezed through her opening bout against Hailey WHEELER (USA) in only 20 seconds before taking just over a minute longer to defeat Nicoleta Cristina BAJAN (ROU). There was also a first win for German newcomer Laura SCHMITT, who defeated Justine VIGOUROUX (FRA) in her second bout after losing her opener to Ana Maria PIRVU (ROU), who, like Cataloglu, won her two opening matches.

Daria MEDVETSKA (UKR) is always there or there abouts it seems when the medals are handed out, but the Ukrainian had to dig deep to win her opening Women’s 60kg match of this leg of the series as she came from 2-1 down with 9 seconds remaining to win 3-2 against compatriot Sofiia KUSHNIR. She was joined on 2 wins from 2 by teammate Anastasia KRAVCHENKO, who had a walkover win in her first match before scoring 5 points against Romanian Gabriela CUC.

Germany’s Andrea GRASRUCK will go down in the record books as her country’s first ever Beach Wrestling World Series bout winner as she won her prelim bout against American Taylor COLANGELO before picking up a group stage win over France’s Josephine HAEMMERLE.

In the Women’s 70kg, reigning Beach Wrestling World Series champion Adina IRIMIA’s return to home sand got off to a bad start as she lost her morning session match to Manon KURY (FRA), but she returned after the lunch break and got her win, defeating teammate Viorica Tania ADAM. Manon Kury also picked up a win in the afternoon session to finish the day 2 for 2 alongside Ukrainian Olena NIKITINSKA.

There were no slip ups from Romania’s +70kg defending champion Catalina AXENTE as she returned to Constanta and started her penultimate leg with 2 wins from 2, defeating Georgiana Florentina ANDRIES (ROU) and winner of the third leg in St. Laurent Du Var last time out, Angelique Gonzalez (FRA). She was joined by Aikaterini Eirini PITSIAVA (GRE), Liudmyla PAVLOVETS TYCHYNA (UKR) and Eliana Rose BOMMARITO (USA) on 2 wins from 2 from the day’s action.

There was somewhat of a shock in the opening round of the Men’s 70kg division when Oleksii BORUTA (UKR), who has been in great form this year, winning the previous 2 series’ legs, slipped to a defeat within only 16 seconds to Pavel GRAUR (MDA), as he was pinned with a 3 point move to give the Moldovan a 4-0 win. Boruta did dust himself down to pick up a 5-1 win of his own in his second bout as he faced Daniel Marian SANDU (ROU). Mitch Cook (USA) had a great day as he picked up wins over serial medallist Yunus COSKUN (TUR) and fellow countryman Jamel Johnson, as did Ramiz HASANOV (AZE) who took victory over Quentin STICKER (FRA) and Sergiu CONSTANTIN (ROU).

Legendary Team USA staff member Rusty Davidson has a saying, “If you ain’t bleeding, you ain’t trying”. His team member Tyler Mackenzie LOETHEN must have taken this literally in his opening match as he finished it with a bandage around his head from a cut after a clash of heads, and the win as he overcame home sand star, Denis Ioan CHIRICA in a thriller in his opening bout of the Men’s 80kg division. Suitably patched up after lunch, he continued his charge to the knockout rounds with a win over teammate Wayne LAMONT.

Defending Men’s 90kg Champion Ibrahim YUSUBOV (AZE) took only 19 seconds to win his opening round matchup over Vasile Madalin MINZALA (ROU), and he ended the day with 2 wins from 2 with a second round win over Moldovan Eugeniu MIHALCEAN. Mahmut OZKAYA, who was runner up to Yusubov in France last time, out also picked up 2 wins as he looked to secure his place in the knockout rounds.

The Men’s +90kg Division is dominated at the moment by Fatih YASARLI (TUR) and Mamuka KORDZAIA (GEO), who between them, have won the 3 legs of the Beach Wrestling World Series so far this year, and it looks like both will be in contention this edition as well. Yasarli picked up 2 round wins, first defeating Azerbaijani star “The Big Gun” Oyan Nazariani in a tight bout that came down to the fact Yasarli scored the last point and then took just over a minute to dispatch Alexandru BESLIU (ROU). Kordzaia narrowly beat Andrii VLASOV (UKR) and was then awarded a walkover in his second-round bout. Nazariani kept his hopes of a medal alive as he bounced back from defeat to storm to a 3-1 win over Georgi Ventsislavov VELEV (BUL) in only 39 seconds.

An amazing day of Beach Wrestling was had here in Constanta as we move on to the elimination rounds Friday and find out who will be crowned the Kings and Queens of the Sand for this penultimate leg.