Wrestling: Tamás Lőrincz considered the European Championships as a kind of test

Tamás Lőrincz,who goes by the nickname“Szöcsi,”wrestled amazingly at the European Championships in Poland. After winning five matches with confidence, he could stand on the top of the podium. In the finals, he defeated U23 gold medalistYunus Emre Başarof Turkey by technical superiority (8:0).

Lőrincz has celebrated his 14^thmedal in a world competition, thus securing his leading position in the relevant Hungarian all-time ranking of wrestlers.

"I have a positive outlook on what happened. Mainly because it was not the most important competition of the year, but the Tokyo Olympics will be. I considered this competition as a kind of test. I needed to know where I was because the last time I stepped on the mat within my weight class was a year and a half ago at the World Championships in Nur-Sultan. Since then, I have only participated in two tournaments in a category above my actual weight class,"says the wrestler.

So, Lőrincz, who became a world champion in Kazakhstan, won the last two World championships that he participated in. However, he is not entirely satisfied with his performance at the Europeans.

"In the eighth round, Croatia's Kamenjasevic made a four-point hip throw on me, and that is so unlike me... Other than that, I think I wrestled well. I have been competing among adults for a decade and a half, and I can pretty much feel what I can expect from myself before each world event. Two or three weeks before the European Championships in Warsaw, I found myself performing well. Fortunately, I was not wrong, and I think I am in better shape than I was during the Nur-Sultan World Championships.”

However, can Olympic silver medalist Lőrincz be able to get into such outstanding form twice in a year? As he said, Tokyo is in front of his eyes.

"I hope so. We have been training really hard in the last couple of weeks, and we just started to take a step back a little. We are preparing for the Olympics at a different pace, though. I see this as another stop, and we are just focusing on the Olympics.”

His also-European champion brother, Viktor, whose performance in the continental competition in Poland did not go the way he wanted, got eliminated after two lost matches.

Translated by Vanda Orosz