Europe's largest youth wrestling tournament takes place in Tallinn this weekend
2015 Tallinn Open - Kristjan Palusalu Youth Wrestling Tournament, possibly the largest youth tournament in Europe, takes place from March 27-29 in Saku Suurhall, Tallinn. The tournament will be followed by an international cadet wrestling training camp.
The tournament will have over 1,500 young wrestlers from 17 countries on 12 mats, battling it out in Greco-Roman and freestyle in memory of two-time Olympic Champion Kristjan Palusalu (1908-1987). For the first time, the tournament also has female categories.
In the past five years, Tallinn Open has increased the number of of competitors nine-fold and the number of competing countries five-fold. It's the largest wrestling tournament in Europe and, according to non-official records, the fourth-largest in the world.
Estonian delegation will be 587 athletes strong, followed by 301 boys and girls from Finland, 202 from Latvia and 139 from Russia. The youngest competitor is 6-year-old Ekku Tarkkio from Finland.
The competition starts at 10:00 on Satruday and Sunday, the finals will take place at approximately 17:00 on Saturday and 15:00 on sunday. You can view the full schedule here.
Tallinn Open takes place for the 27th time. Following the competition is the four-day Tallinn Open International Wrestling Training Camp that awaits 80-100 wrestlers of ages 14-18 at KORRUS3 wrestling center.
Editor: M. Oll