Wrestling’s hottest style is the latest addition to Italy’s illustrious beach delights, like ice-cream and coffee, as the Beach Wrestling World Series heads to the Rome’s famous city beach, Lido di Ostia. The season’s 2nd stop will feature not only all eight of the category winners from the curtain raiser on the French Riviera, but also a 7-wrestler strong Italian team who will face off against 85 athletes of 16 different nationalities.

Shifting focus back to the beach after the Olympic Games, rings on the sand will take centre stage in September. The competition in Rome is just the first of three events in a row — on back-to-back weekends, the Beach Wrestling World Series will take an Italian turn, and only a week later will head to the Aegean Sea in Katerini, Greece.

While in both places the sport of wrestling can be traced back to ancient times, this modern approach to Beach Wrestling will be on display for the tifosi in the Italian capital city on the first weekend in September.

With seven athletes — four men and three women, in seven weight classes — Italian representation will be on display throughout the group phase, and with high hopes to increase the number of podium finishes following the elimination rounds and finals. It was 2018’s -60kg world champion runner-up Francesca Indelicato and heavyweight Enrica Rinaldi who waved the Italian flag from their 2nd places in France.

In the women’s division, the attractive athlete line-up features 30 wrestlers in total, including all top three finishers from stop 1. France’s winner Stefania Claudia PRICEPUTU (ROU, -50kg), Turkey’s Mehlika OZTURK (-60kg), Alina BEREZHNA STADNIK MAKHYNIA (-70kg) from Ukraine and Catalina AXENTE, the Romanian +70kg powerhouse will have to show strength and stamina to grapple to the top once again.

While it was a Georgian clean sweep in all four of the men’s weight classes on the French Riviera, Azerbaijan’s heavy weight World Champion Oyan NAZARIANI will make his comeback to the beach during the Italian leg and has already announced his claim for victory. Georgia’s Mamuka KORDZAIA knows he needs to gear up for the shake-up on the sand.

Whether or not Levan KELEKHSASHVILI (-70kg), Davit KHUTSISHVILI (-80kg) and Dato MARSAGISHVILI (-90kg) can keep their competition in check — as they most evidently did on French soil — will be shown on Beach Wrestling’s official website, where all the fights will be live-streamed.

Schedule Stop 2, Rome, ITA

Friday, September 3

10.00-13.00      Group Phase

15.00-18.00      Group Phase

Saturday, September 4

10.00-13.00      Group Phase

15.00-18.00      Elimination Rounds + Finals

Beach Wrestling World Series 2021

16-17 July - Saint Laurent du Var (FRA) | Landsberg Beach

03-04 September - Rome (ITA) | Lido di Ostia

10-11 September - Katerini (GRE) | Paralia

25-26 September - Constanta (ROU) | Mamaia Beach