The annual Arvo Haavisto Cup in Finland set for next week will not feature a large number of participants. At press time, and barring an infusion of post-deadline entrants, the number of athletes spread across eight weight categories stands at 61. These might not appear to be impressive figures compared to other, more significant tournaments (such as United World Wrestling “Ranking Series” events, for example) but they are within normal range for Haavisto.
From 2014 to ’24, the Haavisto Cup averaged 72 total entrants, though there were drastic deviations in registered competitors following ’19. Haavisto’s average number of wrestlers from ’14 to ’16 was 77; then for ’17, ’18, and ’19 the average ballooned to 95. However, in the first running of the event after the pandemic (’21), Haavisto boasted only 33 athletes. In ’22, there were 40, and ’23 saw a jump to 67. Last year, when Austin DeSanto and Otto Black (67 kg, NYAC/NTS) both emerged with gold, the tournament was capped at 65 overall entries. Therefore, 61 likely does not read as a grand allotment of wrestlers, but it is aligned with the amount of participation Haavisto has typically attracted in recent years.
Arvo Haavisto Cup Number of Entries Since 2014
2014 — 66
2015 — 89
2016 — 76
2017 — 102
2018 — 98
2019 — 85
2021 — 33
2022 — 40
2023 — 67
2024 — 65
What the 2025 Arvo Haavisto Cup may lack in quantity, Team Bulgaria is delivering quality by sending the majority of their #1’s to the event — led by ’24 Olympic Champion Semen Novikov (87 kg).
Novikov, a three-time European Championships medalist (including gold in ’20), is a native of Ukraine and represented his home country in international competition until ’21. Unlike other Ukrainians (as well as Russians), his defection was unrelated to the ongoing geopolitical conflict between the two nations. In fact, Novikov had already been putting pieces in place to leave the Ukrainian program prior to the kickoff of the war and his decision was motivated by what he perceived as a lack of opportunities to enter World-level events, particularly due to the presence of ’21 Olympic gold Zhan Belenyuk. Belenyuk — who in addition to owning two World titles also claims an Olympic silver (’16) and bronze (’24) — had long occupied the top spot at 85/87 kg for UKR whilst Novikov was still developing. However, as Novikov began to perform on the Senior level, he claimed, essentially, that he was being held back by Vladimir Shatskikh, who functioned as Belenyuk’s personal coach and reportedly played a role in Team selection.
For what it’s worth, Belenyuk was classy throughout the ordeal, saying (of Novkikov) at the time “I know that he is in a difficult place now. He has the same shoulder injury as before the Olympics. He was operated on. Perhaps this is psychologically affecting and demotivating him. Novikov is a strong athlete who can do a lot for Ukrainian Greco-Roman wrestling. You need to listen to him and understand what is going on.”
Nevertheless, since joining the Bulgarian program, Novikov has consistently put forth outstanding results. He finished 9th at two separate “Ranking Series” events (’23 Zagreb GP and ’25 Muhamet Malo, respectively) but won five tournaments (counting the Olympics) and placed no lower than 3rd everywhere else. Novikov has barely begun to reach his prime years and will turn 28 early next month.
Along with Novikov, Bulgaria is also sending two-time World silver Kiril Milov (97 kg) to Haavisto. Milov sent shockwaves around the sport this past spring when he triumphed at the European Championships in part by defeating multi-time World/Olympic Champion Artur Aleksanyan (ARM). Prior to the Euros, Milov had gone up to heavyweight for the Paris Olympics, the first time in his career he had wrestled beyond 98/97 kg.
BUL Drama
But neither Novikov nor Milov competed at the ’25 World Championships in September, despite both being healthy for the event. The reason stemmed from various issues for which BF Borba (Bulgarian Wrestling Federation) was responsible. It started with the startling dismissal of National coach Soslan Farniev and continued with BF Borba adding a policy that, for all intents and purposes, sought to eliminate other languages (primarily Russian) from being spoken during training.
In early ’25, federation leadership began to decry the influx of athletes of other origins representing Bulgaria in competition (of which Novikov is obviously one). The federation wanted to re-prioritize utilizing Bulgarian-born competitors, so much so that their Team selection centered around this objective. Novikov and Milov (the latter of whom was indeed born and raised in BUL) both stood behind Farniev and declined to participate in National Team training once May arrived. And both wrestlers, as well as Russian-defector Abu Amaev (63 kg), were not permitted to represent BUL at the ’25 Worlds and have not competed since April. Meanwhile, in April, all three were finalists at the ’25 Euros (Milov, gold; Amaev and Novikov, silver).
And all three are expected to compete in Haavisto as well as in Sweden’s Haparanda Cup the following week.
The 2025 Arvo Haavisto Cup is scheduled for next Saturday, November 29 in Ilmajoki, Finland.
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