Amine Captures European Silver, Fourth Straight Euro Medal
4/19/2023 4:06:00 PM | Wrestling
ZAGREB, Croatia -- University of Michigan wrestling alum 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 fifth European 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 could not 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 an 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.
Graduate student Matt Finesilver narrowly missed medaling in his European Championships debut for Israel, settling for a fifth-place finish at 92kg after falling to Slovakia's Ermak Kardanov 6-0 in the bronze-medal match. Finesilver 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.
Former Wolverines Stevan Micic and Malik Amine also competed at 65kg and 74kg, respectively.
