World’s best student wrestlers get ready in Brazil

Hosts hopeful of a good show in Goiânia

GOIANIA — One of the world’s oldest and most popular sports takes centre stage in Goiânia, Brazil, as the FISU World University Wrestling Championship gets under way at the Rio Vermelho gymnasium. 

The world’s best student wrestlers are gearing up for this 13th edition of the Championship, with the Hungarian delegation being the first to arrive. A total of 140 athletes representing 12 different countries will be vying for the title of World University Champion in in 3 categories: female free-style, male freestyle and male Greco-Roman.

While there are some wrestling heavyweights among the countries represented, hosts Brazil cannot be counted out of the list of favourites more so because of the home crowd support. The Rio Vermelho gymnasium, located in the central region of Goiânia has a capacity of five thousand people and with free entrance to the wrestling event, it is expected to run to a full house. Goiânia has a strong sporting culture and has hosted another World University Championship in the past, WUC Futsal in 2016. The city has also hosted the Brazilian University Games (JUBs) in 2017 and is setting itself up to be a host to many major sports events. 

The weigh-ins, accreditations and technical processes are underway before the Opening Ceremony takes place at 17:00, on Tuesday 4 September. The Championship continues until 9 September with a very special Closing Ceremony that has been planned. Competition starts at 14:00, local time, every day.  

Watch all the exciting action live on the FISU Facebook page, right . On Tuesday, competitions will be broadcasted live from 15:00 Goiânia time (20:00 CEST) before the Opening Ceremony is streamed at 17:00 (22:00 CEST). The following days, Wednesday through Sunday, fights will be streamed live from court A starting at 14:00 local time (19:00 CEST).