PhD, Associate Professor I.N. Nikulin¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.V. Posokhov¹
PhD, Associate Professor A.V. Voronkov¹
M.D. Vasiliev^1
1Belgorod State National Research University, Belgorod

Keywords: armwrestling, international competitions, European Armwrestling Championship, medal standings, prizes.

Background. Medal standings at the top-ranking international sports events are traditionally ranked by the national Sports Federation among the key efficiency indicators for the sports development programs in our country. As far as the modern amateur armwrestling is concerned, its top-ranking events are the annual World and European Championships. The sports community applies a set of the event-specific and consolidated competitive performance indicators to rate the individual/ team successes in the national sports progress analyses [3, 4].

As mentioned by Shikh (2018), sports progress data and analyses are getting increasingly comprehensive, diverse and commonly accessible [6] albeit some key data arrays may still be difficult for instant access and analyses. The national teams’ competitive performance analyses made on an annual basis with a special priority to the top-ranking international competitions may provide highly valuable data for the Sports Federation in its efforts to address the progress bottlenecks and make timely corrections to the key action plans, goals and solutions [1, 2].

Objective of the study was to rate the competitive performances of the national armwrestling teams at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships.

Methods and structure of the study. We basically used the formal competitive reports to rate the competitive performances of the national armwrestling teams at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships, with a special priority to the medal standings on the men/ women team scoreboards in the right/ left hand events and total medal standings.

Results and discussion. The 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships were run in 18 individual events with the successes consolidated to arrive at the final team standings in 7 and 11 weight classes for women and men, respectively [2], with classification into the left/ right hand events. Every championship offered 14 and 22 sets of medals for women and men, respectively till 2019 when 90 kg weight class was introduced in the women armwrestling with the women medal stock expanded to 16 medals. Given in Table 1 are the total medal standings of the men/ women national teams at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships.

Table 1. 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships: total left/ right-hand men/ women’s team standings

Note: G gold, S silver, B bronze

Figure 1. Progresses of the world leading teams in the medal standings at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships: total men/ women’s left/ right-hand events

Russia has held the lead on the medal standing scoreboard for the last 5 years, followed by Georgia (minus 70 points); Bulgaria and Ukraine sharing the third place; and Turkey and Armenia ranked 6^th ad 7^th. On the whole, 20 nations have won medals for the study period, with Russia, Georgia and Armenia demonstrating progresses versus regresses of Ukraine and Bulgaria in the 5-year medal standings. Best progress in 2019 to 2015 was scored by Armenia (7 to 0 medals, respectively), Georgia in 2016 to 2015 (23 to 14 medals, respectively (Figure 1); whilst Turkey made the lowest regress in 2017 to 2016 (3 to 9 medals).

Given in Table 2 are the women national team standings at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships leaded by Russia, Ukraine and Slovakia (3^rd place); whilst Georgia and Bulgaria were only the 8^th and 10^th on the women medal standings scoreboards.

Table 2. 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships: women’s team standings, left/ right hand totals

Figure 2. Progresses of the leading women’s teams in the medal standings at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships: left/ right-hand totals

The world leading teams made the following progresses in 2019 to 2015: Russia plus 5 medals; and Ukraine and Slovakia plus 3 medals each. Given in Table 3 are the men national team standings at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships.

Table 3. 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships: men’s team standings, left/ right hand totals

Note: G gold, S silver, B bronze

Leading on the men team standings scoreboards for the period has been Georgia, with Russia ranked the second, Bulgaria the third; and Ukraine, Turkey and Armenia ranked the 4^th to 6^th. It should be mentioned that Russia has won the highest stock of gold medals (33) for the period followed by Georgia (30). The best progress in 2019 to 2015 was scored by Turkey (plus 5 medals) and Armenia (plus 7 medals), whilst Ukraine made the lowest regress (minus 7 medals) for the period.

Figure 3. Progresses the leading men’s teams in the medal standings at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships: left/ right-hand totals

Conclusion. Medals of the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships were won by 20 nations, with the top titles won by 9 of them. The Russian women’s national armwrestling team has been ranked among the top-tree and the first in the total medal standings for these 5 successive years. Georgia men’s and women’s teams have been ranked the first and 8^th, respectively for the period, with the women’s team winning only 8% of the total medal stock; as compared to the Slovakia, Sweden and Lithuania women that won 100%, 87.5% and 78.5% of their national medal stocks; and in contrast to Romania and Armenia with their 100% and 75% men’s medal stocks for the period.

References

1. Nikulin I.N., Lobanov G.V., Ostankov D.A., Vasilev M.D. Main trends in performance of leading national teams at world championships and arm wrestling championships in 2013-2017. Diskurs. 2018. No.8 (22). pp. 68-74.
2. Nikulin I.N., Maksimenko V.A., Posokhov A.V., Tolmachev D.N. Effectiveness of performance of Russian national armwrestling teams at world championships in 2014-2018. Development of physical education and sports in context of human self-realization in modern socio-economic conditions. Proc. XI nat. research-practical conference. Lipetsk, November 29-30, 2018. Lipetsk: Leningrad State Pedagogical University named after P.P. Semenov-Tian-Shansky publ., 2018. pp. 79-84.
3. Nikulin I.N., Sobyanin F.I., Posokhov A.V., Maksimenko V.A. Competitive performance results of leading national teams in major international armrestling competitions. Teoriya i praktika fiz. kultury. 2019. 12 (978). pp. 80-83.
4. Platonov V.N. Elite sports and training of Olympic national teams: domestic and foreign experience: history and modernity. M.: Sovetskiy sport publ., 2010. 308 p.
5. Podrigalo L.V., Iermakov S.S., Nosko M.O., Galashko M.N., Galashko N.I. (2015). Study and analysis of armwrestlers’ forearm muscles’ strength. Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 15(3), 531–537. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2015.03080
6. Shih H.C. (2018). A Survey of Content-Aware Video Analysis for Sports. Ieee Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, 28(5), 1212–1231. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcsvt.2017.2655624.

Corresponding author: Nikulin_I@bsu.edu.ru

Abstract

Objective of the study was to rate the competitive performances of the national armwrestling teams at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships.
Methods and structure of the study. We basically used the formal competitive reports to rate the competitive performances of the national armwrestling teams at the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships, with a special priority to the medal standings on the men/ women team scoreboards in the right/ left hand events and total medal standings.
Results and conclusions. The analysis revealed Europe's top national armwrestling teams: men’s, women’s, and in the overall standing. We studied the dynamics of the number of prizes won by the top three countries - leaders of the team classification: among women - Russia, Ukraine, and Slovakia; among men - Georgia, Russia, and Bulgaria; in the overall standing - Russia, Georgia, and Bulgaria. There was a positive dynamics in the number of prizes won in 2019 versus 2015 - Russia, Georgia, and Armenia, and a negative dynamics - Bulgaria and Ukraine. The best positive trend was observed among the national teams of Armenia - in 2019 as opposed to 2015 and Georgia - in 2016 as opposed to 2015. Turkey demonstrated the greatest negative dynamic in 2017 as opposed to 2015.

Medals of the 2015-2019 European Armwrestling Championships were won by 20 nations, with the top titles won by 9 of them. The Russian women’s national armwrestling team has been ranked among the top-tree and the first in the total medal standings for these 5 successive years. Georgia men’s and women’s teams have been ranked the first and 8^th, respectively for the period, with the women’s team winning only 8% of the total medal stock; as compared to the Slovakia, Sweden and Lithuania women that won 100%, 87.5% and 78.5% of their national medal stocks; and in contrast to Romania and Armenia with their 100% and 75% men’s medal stocks for the period.