Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads between Central  and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Serbia is landlocked and borders Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; Macedonia to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro to the west; it also claims a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo. The capital of Serbia, Belgrade, is one of the largest cities in Southeast Europe. As of a 2011 census, Serbia (excluding Kosovo) had a total population of 7.2 million.

Tourism

Serbia is not a mass-tourism destination but nevertheless has diverse range of touristic products . Tourism is mainly focused on the mountains and spas of the country, which are mostly visited by domestic tourists, as well as Belgrade which is preferred choice of foreign tourists. The most famous mountain resorts are Kopaonik, Stara Planina, and Zlatibor. There are also many spas in Serbia, the biggest of which is Vrnjačka Banja, Soko Banja, and Banja Koviljača. City-break and conference tourism is developed in Belgrade

Sport in Serbia

Sports play an important role in Serbian society, and the country has a strong sporting history. The most popular sports in Serbia are football, basketball, tennis, volleyball, water polo and handball. Football is the most popular sport in Serbia, and the Football Association of Serbia with 146,845 registered players, is the largest sporting association in the country. Serbia is one of the traditional powerhouses of world basketball, as Serbia men's national basketball team have won two World Championships (in 1998 and 2002).

Serbias Olympic Gold Medalist 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Davor Stefanec.

Wrestling in Serbia

Wrestling is called "Rvanje" in Serbia. The National Wrestling Federation has its headquarters in the capital, Belgrade, and is called "Rvacki Savez Srbije". As president acts, Mr. Nenad Lalović, who is also president of the International Wrestling Association UWW. Wrestling is traditionally anchored in Serbia and there are 85 Wrestling clubs across the country and 18 in the Capitol City of Beograd. The stronghold of  Serbian Wrestling is located in the Voivodina. In Serbia, the Greco / Roman style is very popular but in freestyle and female wrestling, the country has achieved not much international success.

International Situation

Within the Yugoslav national team, the Serbian Wrestlers played mostly a good role internationally.
After the political changes and the separation of the Yugoslavia at the beginning of the nineties, this level could not be maintained. The Serbian Wrestling Association has too few members to compete internationally with the great wrestling nations. For the small Serbian Wrestling Federation, it is increasingly difficult to qualify athletes for the Olympic Games. 2008 in Bejing have participated two serbian Wrestlers Christian Fris and Davor Stefanec. 2012 in London Alexandar Maksimowic was the one and only serbian wrestler at the Games.

For its possibilities, serbia runs a good youth development and has dedicated teams. In greco/ roman style Serbia could produce exceptional athletes  . At the World Championships 2014 in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) succeeded Davor Stefanec in the 66Kg category a surprising the world title. 2015 was Viktor Nemes surprisingly European champion. 2013 the small Serbian Wrestling Federation had hosted the Cadet World Championships in the university town of Zrenjanin. The serbian wrestling federations were happy about silver (Boban Zivanovic) and Bronze ((Miklos Horti). Serbia won a sensational Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Davor Stefanec was the hero of the nation and won the first medal after 11 days of disappointing results and was credited by other Serbian athletes for raising their spirits.

 
Serbias current  international wrestlers Davor Stefanec (left, blue),                                                      Alexandar Maksimovic                                                                                                                            and Victor Nemes.

The biggest international successes of serbian wrestlers:

For Yugoslavia:

Momir Petković  (from Subotica) Olympic gold medalist 1976 in Montreal 82Kg greco.
He also claimed three World silver medals (1978, 1979, 1981) and a World bronze medal (1977) during his career. Petkovic placed fourth in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Calif. Momir was revered for his majestic mustache which gave him great power. His competitive international Greco-Roman career spanned from 1970–1984.  Petković emigrated in 1986 with his family from Yugoslavia to the United States. He was Coach of New York Athletic Club and then he worked as an assistant coach and later as head coach for the US national greco/roman team. He was the Coach of Olympic Gold medalist Rulon Gardner in 2000.

Sreten Damjanović  European Champ 1969 und Worldchampion 1971 68Kg greco. He is Coach of the Premium Club „Proleter Zrenjanin“.

Branislav „Branko“ Martinović . Olympic Silver Medal 1960 and 1964 greco.

Refik Memišević (Subotica) Worldchampion 1981 and Olympic Silver 1984 in Los Angeles.

Milan Nenadić  Olympic Bronce 1972 in Munich 82Kg greco.

Darko Nišavić  European Bronce 1972 90Kg greco.

Branislav Simić  (from Zrenjanin) World Silver 1963 and 1964 Olympic Champion in Tokyo, Olympic Bronce 1968 Mexico City.

Borivoje Vukov (from Novi Sad) World Champion 1963 52Kg, greco.

For Serbia:

Davor Stefanec (Club Proleter Zrenjanin), World Champion 2014, 66Kg and 3. European Champ 2008  60 Kg greco. Olympic gold medalist 2016 in Rio de Janeiro 66Kg greco.

Alexandar Maksimovic (Club Partizan Belgrad) double Junior European Championships (2007 and 2008), 2. Junior World Champr 2008 and double Bronce European Championships 2012 and 2013.

Christian Fris (Club RK Omladinac Zrenjanin) Junior European Champ 2004, 3.European Champ 2007 and 3. World Champ 2007  55Kg greco.

Viktor Nemes (Club Proleter Zrenjanin) 1. European Champ 2015 75Kg greco.

National Situation

 The stronghold of the Serbian Wrestling is located in the Voyvodina. The best clubs of Serbia are: Proleter Zrenjanin, Partizan Belgrade, RK Novi Sad and RK Spartak Subotika. In Serbia, greco/roman is much more popular than freestyle or female wrestling.
Nationalcoach in Serbia is Prov. Bojan Mijatov.
"Narodno Rvanje" is the traditional wrestling style in Serbia and Montenegro.

 
A Serbian National Selection in wrestling.

Team Competitions (League)

Wrestling in Serbis as a team sport as well. In Serbia there three Leagues in greco/roman and one League in Freestyle.  Two teams compete against each other. Each team is usually eight starters on and the team score one Point for one individual win.

I.   League 2016              gr/rom

 1.         Proleter Zrenjanin
2.         Spartak Subotica
3.         Partizan Beograd
4.         Potisje Kanjza
5.         Radnikcki Kragujevac
6.         RK Novi Sad
7.         Radnikcki Sombor
8.         RK Senta
9.         Radnikcki Beograd

II.                League 2016                    gr/rom

1.                  Crvena Zvezda Beograd
2.                  Soko Sombor
3.                  Vitez Sabac
4.                  Lj. Gedza Mladenovac
5.                  Tent Obrenovac
6.                  Fruskogorac Sremska Kamenica
7.                  Mladost Valjevo
8.                  Omladinac Botos

I.               League 2016              Freestyle

1.               RK Kragujevac
2.               Freestyle Beograd
3.               Zelesnicar Beograd
4.               Dorcol Beograd
5.               Crvena Zvezda Beograd
6.               Mladost Valjevo

Sports officials from Serbia:

The serbian UWW President Nenad Lalovic saved Olympic Wrestling.

Milan Ercegan, was the former President of the former supervising Olympic wrestling body FILA from 1972 to 2002.

Nenad Lalovic, a businessman from Belgrade, Serbia, is the current president of United World Wrestling, formerly known as FILA, the international federation of wrestling.

Federation

President: Mr. Nenad Lalović

Chairman: Mr. Zeljko Traikovic

adress: 11000 BEOGRAD, Knez Mihajlova 7/II
phone: ++381.11.26.28.787
phone: ++381.11.26.20.386
fax: ++381.11.26.28.787
E-mail: srb@fila-wrestling.com

Homepage:

http://www.wrestling-serbia.org.rs/

Wrestling Clubs in Serbia:

http://www.wrestling-serbia.org.rs/klubovi/klubovilist.php

07  /  2015