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Armenian wrestlers Artur Aleksanyan and Malkhas Amoyan, who captured gold medals at the European Championships in Bucharest, Romania, bronze medalist Manvel Khachatryan and other members of the Armenian Greco-Roman wrestling team returned to Yerevan last night. The athletes were welcomed at Yerevan's Zvartnots Airport by their fans, families and officials of the Armenian National Olympic Committee.

"Winning every championship is important for me, every title has its own place. I've put a lot of effort, trained and worked hard to succeed. Each and every title has its own price,” seven-time European champion Artur Aleksanyan told reporters.

“Becoming European champion is always difficult. Every year I feel more and more that everyone is preparing to get ahead of me," he added.

World champion and three-time European champion Malkhas Amoyan, in his turn, pointed out that it was difficult to win the European Championships gold medal for the third time. "All wrestlers prepare against you. This gold medal was more difficult for me to clinch than the previous two ones,” he said.

“At the same time, winning the European Championships gold medal has given me more confidence to move forward more decisively. I will do my best to earn a gold medal at the Paris Olympic Games as well," the athlete added.

European bronze medalist Manvel Khachatryan competed at a senior championship for the first time.

"We went to Bucharest for a victory, unfortunately it didn't work out. We had to settle for a bronze medal. There was not so much tension. I probably failed to win due to lack of experience. Next time we will meet all expectations and return home with a gold medal," Khachatryan noted.

The head coach of the Armenian Greco-Roman wrestling team, Armen Babalaryan, says that serious expectations are always placed on the team and the competitions have confirmed that the Armenian wrestlers are capable of achieving more.