ZAGREB, Croatia — The Cliff Keen Wrestling Club’s Myles Amine captured the 86kg/189-pound silver medal at the 2023 European Championships on Wednesday (April 19) at Arena Zagreb. It was Amine’s fourth straight medal at the European Championships and fifth Euro medal since 2020.
Amine fell to Greece’s Dauren Kurugliev, 3-1, in the championship final. He earned the match’s first point on a caution-and-one after a heavy Kurugliev club early in the first period but couldn’t finish on a couple deep single-leg attacks. Kurugliev finished on a single leg later in the first and added a shot-clock point in the second to pull away. Kurugliev previously won two European titles while competing for Russia; he finished his transfer to Greece just this month.
Amine went 3-1 in the tournament and earned a dramatic semifinal win, 3-2, over Poland’s Sebastian Jezierzanski on a last-second takedown. Trailing by one late, Amine attacked relentlessly over the final 30 seconds, eventually using to arm drag to get behind Jezierzanski, grab an ankle and complete the takedown with just two seconds remaining on the clock.
Amine previously captured European Championships silver in 2020, bronze in 2021 and captured 86kg gold last year in Budapest. He also claimed a European Games bronze medal in 2019 — in his first year competing for San Marino.
Matt Finesilver and Ben Honis narrowly missed medaling in their European Championships debuts for Israel and Italy, respectively. Finesilver settled for a fifth-place finish at 92kg after falling to Slovakia’s Ermak Kardanov, 6-0, in the bronze-medal match. He had his chances throughout the bout, but Kardanov twice scored on his attacks, exposing him off a single-leg shot early in the second and finishing on a counter takedown late to ice it. Finesilver went 1-2, also falling to eventual silver medalist Osman Nurmagomedov of Azerbajian in the quarterfinals, while defeating North Macedonia’s Redjep Hajdari, 5-0, in his first bout.
Honis also went 1-2 at 97kg and dropped a tough 10-6 loss to Hungary’s Vladislav Baitcaev in the bronze-medal match. Down 4-0 at the break, Honis started to rally against the former European champion and four-time Euro medalist but was taken down at the ankles and laced twice. He scored three takedowns of his own — all in the third period — but couldn’t overcome the deficit. He defeated Switzerland’s Samuel Scherrer, 5-1, in his repechage bout, scoring on the shot clock in the first and a pair of takedowns in the second.
Former Wolverines Stevan Micic and Malik Amine also competed at 65kg and 74kg, respectively.
