Wrestling: Tough test for Liddle

Auckland wrestler Martin Liddle has drawn a former world championship silver medallist in his pool of the 54kg freestyle division at the Sydney Olympics.

Namig Abdullayev, of Azerbaijan, who won 52kg European titles in 1994 and 1995 and was second in the 1998 world championships fighting at 54kg, looks to be favourite to advance from the pool to the quarterfinals.

The pool was reduced to three when Egypt's All African Games champion Aly Hassan failed to show up at Wednesday's medical and weigh-in for the freestyle wrestlers.

Korea's Moon Myung Seok, about whom no details are registered in the Olympic information system, is the other wrestler in Liddle's pool.

The Oceania champion for the past two years is in a ``good frame of mind'' and had been training well in Sydney, according to New Zealand manager Malcolm McBeth.

``He's quite prepared to give it his all, but the competition is pretty tough,'' McBeth added.

Liddle is New Zealand's only freestyle wrestler at the Sydney Games. Neither of the two Greco-Roman representatives, Rasoul Amani and Jotham Pellew, won a bout in their competitions earlier this week.

- NZPA