Viktor Petrovich Alexeyev

--- CONTENT ---
Viktor Petrovich Alexeyev (born February 8, 1956 in Krasnoyarsk) is a former Soviet wrestler. He was world champion in 1983 and 1985 in free style featherweight.

Career

Viktor Alexeyev began wrestling as a teenager in his hometown of Krasnoyarsk. He became a member of Dynamo Krasnoyarsk and made rapid progress with the help of coach Vladimir Gusev. He fought exclusively in free style. In 1975 he achieved his first major victory. He won the Bantamweight title at the People's Spartakiade of the Russian Socialist Federal Soviet Republic.

In 1977 Viktor Alexeyev was also used in international championships. He succeeded at the European Championship in Bursa the title win in the Bantamweight. Among the wrestlers defeated by him was also Bernd Bobrich from the GDR. In the final, Victor Alexeyev defeated Fevzi Gökdoğan from Turkey. In the same year he was also at the start of the World Championship in Lausanne. In Lausanne, his weight class was very busy. Nevertheless, he achieved six victories before he met the Japanese Tadashi Sasaki in the final. In an exciting battle he lost to this just after points and became vice world champion.

After that, Viktor Alexeyev had his next appearance at an international championship only in 1980, after he had become the first Soviet champion in the featherweight in 1979. At the World Cup tournament in Toledo/Okio he won ahead of Andre Metzger from the United States. In 1981 Viktor Alexeyev became World Student Champion in Bucharest and took 3rd place at the World Cup in Skoplje. Decisive for this was a defeat in the pool final against Marian Skubacz from Poland.

In 1983 Viktor Alexeyev won his first World Cup title in Kiev featherweight. He had to fight hard against Kazuhito Sakae from Japan, Simeon Sherev from Bulgaria and Lee Roy Smith from the USA before he left the mat as the winner. In 1984 Victor Alexeyev was beaten by Simeon Sherev at the European Championship in Jönköping and therefore only took 2nd place. But even harder than this defeat was the fact that he could not compete in the Olympic Games of the same year in Los Angeles, after he had not managed to qualify for the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980. The boycott of the 1984 Games by the socialist states was the reason for this.

In 1985 Viktor Alexeyev became world champion in the featherweight for the second time in Budapest. The Mongolian Awirmediin Enchee was his toughest rival.

After 1985, Viktor Alexeyev started only at two World Cup tournaments in 1986. He then finished his international wrestling career. He had already studied law during his time as an active wrestler at the University of Krasnoyarsk and is now a lawyer, but is also a trainer for young wrestlers