Blossoming talent on the mat

Seven medals won by Belarusian girls at the 2025 European Youth Wrestling Championships

The European U23 Wrestling Championships took place in Tirana, Albania. Belarusian girls performed brilliantly, capturing seven medals. Aryna Martynava and Kseniya Tsiarenia became champions, Anastasiya Yanotava won silver, and Marta Hetmanava, Viktoryia Radzkova, Hanna Pirskaya and Viktoryia Volk secured bronze.

Anastasiya Yanotava's takedown       Kadir Caliskan

The potential of our young athletes, especially the girls, was already evident in 2023 when Belarus hosted the 2nd CIS Games. At the competitions held in Soligorsk, the home wrestlers took five gold medals (including Martynava and Tsiarenia as champions), three silver and one bronze ones. However, the girls’ prospects were discussed cautiously at the time: after a long period of exclusion from international competitions, it was difficult to assess their level compared to rivals from leading teams.
The girls quickly proved that there was no need to worry about this. At the World Championships among athletes under 20, which took place a couple of weeks after the CIS Games, Aryna Martynava secured gold, defeating her opponents with a staggering total score of 41:0! Alesia Hetmanava won silver then, and Alina Shauchuk and Kseniya Tsiarenia — bronze. After that, the girls made people talk about them more than once.

Belarusian wrestler Kseniya Tsiarenia defeated Hungary's Enikő Elekes at U23 Wrestling European Championships        Kadir Caliskan

Taking revenge

When Kseniya Tsiarenia was asked last week, after the final of the European Youth Championship, what she thought about the women’s team outperforming the freestyle men wrestlers, whose tally included Uladzislau Kazlou’s gold, she replied with a smile, “We always do so!” 
Kseniya’s own path to gold in Tirana was not easy. Competing in the under 65kg weight category, she narrowly defeated Ukraine’s Oleksandra Rybak in the qualifying round, beat Turkish wrestler Beyza Akkuş in the quarterfinals, and gained the upper hand over Azerbaijani Ruzanna Mammadova in the semifinals. In the final, the Belarusian faced Hungary’s Enikő Elekes. Kseniya knows this opponent well: in 2023, at the World U20 Championships, the Hungarian defeated our athlete in the quarterfinals, depriving her of the chance to compete for gold. After the final of this year’s tournament, Kseniya said, “I had been waiting for this fight for two years, to take revenge! It was a very important match for me.” 
It was a thumping victory — a pinfall. Kseniya is certainly not lacking in character! Tsiarenia shared in an interview that she had been active since childhood, and her mischiefs at school sometimes ended with a visit to the headteacher or deputy head. The Minsk native had plenty of interests besides wrestling: hip-hop, cheerleading, social media... But she still chose wrestling, where Iryna Kurachkina and Vasilisa Marzalyuk became examples for her. Tsiarenia dedicated her victory at the European Youth Championship to her coaches, adding that it was a very long road to get there. 

Small but mighty

The name of Aryna Martynava is already well-known to wrestling enthusiasts. By the age of 22, she has amassed a considerable collection of awards at international competitions. While still at school, she won a bronze medal at the European Championships, and secured an award of the same merit at the World Cadet Championships. In 2021, she won silver at the Junior World Championships, and two years later, she triumphed at the world forum among athletes under 20 years old. Also in 2023, Martynava performed admirably in competitions with older athletes, taking bronze at the World U20 Championships. And now — it is another success for the Gomel native.
Aryna navigated the tournament distance in Tirana confidently: competing in the under 57kg category, she defeated Türkiye’s Emine Çakmak, Azerbaijan’s Gultakin Shirinova, and Romanian wrestler Georgiana Carla Lirca. In the final, Martynava prevailed over Ukrainian Alina Filipovych — 8:2.
Aryna has been involved in wrestling for about 15 years, although she tried her hand at various sports in childhood. First, she did swimming, then about five years of football, where she played as a midfielder and scored quite a few goals. When the athlete came to wrestling, she wanted to become stronger with each training session and win competitions.
Incidentally, Aryna’s interests are not limited to sport only. She enjoys doing manicures — previously many girls from the team would visit her to do nails, and now she is learning to drive a car.