maligned Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 The World Championships kicked off in Uzbekistan late last night Indiana time and continues Day 1 through this morning with 4 men's freestyle weights. All 4 guys had their moments, but when the dust cleared we only have Tervel Dlagnev (125kg/275lbs) going for bronze in the late morning (the finals kick off at 10am eastern time). Ramos, Marable, and Ruth all lost very tough decisions to guys that will be wrestling for bronze. From midnight eastern time on through to 6am overnight tonight, the second day of freestyle gets going with Kennedy, Metcalf, Burroughs, and Varner competing for the US (finals in those divisions will be at 10am tomorrow). Burroughs will be favored to win his 4th consecutive Olympic or World title, while Varner (defending Olympic gold medalist), Kennedy, and Metcalf will all be very viable medal threats considering the guys they've all beaten this year. Women's freestyle and Greco will continue for 5 more days beginning late tomorrow night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 By the way, if you don't know anything about Dlagnev, this will be his 4th consecutive (and 5th out of the last 6 years) World or Olympic bronze medal match. He won bronze in 2009, but has lost the same match the last 3 times. He will wrestle the 2011 World champ from Belarus. Tervel beat him at the Olympics in 2012 but before that lost to him a couple of times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattM Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Day 1 (night/morning for us) U.S. freestyle results 57 kg/125.5 lbs. – Tony Ramos, LOSS Bekhbayar Erdenebat (Mongolia), 4-7 70 kg/154 lbs. – Nick Marable, Morgantown WIN Akzurek Tantarov (Kazakhstan), 2-1 WIN Grigor Grigoryan (Armenia), 4-2 LOSS Ali Shabanov (Belarus), 5-2 86 kg/189 lbs. – Ed Ruth, WIN Yusup Melejaev (Turkmenistan), 12-2 LOSS Askari Mohammadian (Iran), 4-7 125 kg/275 lbs. – Tervel Dlagnev, WIN Aleksandr Romanov (Moldova), 11-1 WIN Soslan Gagloev (Slovakia), 5-0 LOSS Taha Akgul (Turkey), 2-4 WIN Aslan Dzebisov (Azerbaijan), 3-1 vs. Alexei Shemarov (Belarus) in bronze-medal match Dlagnev's Bronze match should be coming up shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 Day 1 (night/morning for us) U.S. freestyle results 57 kg/125.5 lbs. – Tony Ramos, LOSS Bekhbayar Erdenebat (Mongolia), 4-7 70 kg/154 lbs. – Nick Marable, Morgantown WIN Akzurek Tantarov (Kazakhstan), 2-1 WIN Grigor Grigoryan (Armenia), 4-2 LOSS Ali Shabanov (Belarus), 5-2 86 kg/189 lbs. – Ed Ruth, WIN Yusup Melejaev (Turkmenistan), 12-2 LOSS Askari Mohammadian (Iran), 4-7 125 kg/275 lbs. – Tervel Dlagnev, WIN Aleksandr Romanov (Moldova), 11-1 WIN Soslan Gagloev (Slovakia), 5-0 LOSS Taha Akgul (Turkey), 2-4 WIN Aslan Dzebisov (Azerbaijan), 3-1 vs. Alexei Shemarov (Belarus) in bronze-medal match Dlagnev's Bronze match should be coming up shortly. I said this already, but the guys who aren't wrestling for medals were legitimately right there. All 3 of their losses were very tight matches. Then, Erdenebat (Ramos' loss) loses 6-3 to the silver medalist and 1-1 in the bronze medal match; Shabanov and Mohammadian (Marable and Ruth's losses) both won bronze. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 And Dlagnev takes bronze...so again that's 2 bronze and 3 fifths (there's no 4th place) in 6 years of World and Olympic events. Pretty impressive and pretty consistent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 kind of a disappointing day so far for the US...Metcalf, Kennedy, and Varner all lose tight decisions in matches they probably should have won, with Kennedy and Varner seeming to gas out and Metcalf hurting his ankle early on and struggling throughout. It doesn't seem like any of them have much chance to be brought back into the repechage rounds with how draws are unfolding. Burroughs is in the semi's against his biggest rival--tsargush of Russia--but he hurt his knee seemingly significantly early in his first match and has just scraped by to get this far. It will be something special to beat Tsargush with as little explosiveness as he seems to have left. He'll probably be up at about 5:10am eastern time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 Burroughs loses 9-2, essentially wrestling on one leg...takes 2 shots the whole 6 minutes against the former world champ Tsargush. We'll see if he comes back and wrestles for bronze, but I have a suspicion he won't. He seems significantly hurt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 Metcalf, Kennedy, Varner all out as expected without coming back into repechage matches. If he decides to wrestle, Burroughs will probably be up at around 11am eastern time for his bronze medal match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
base Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Tough break (no pun intended) for Burroughs I can't believe Ramos is cutting to 125 !! I'd love to see the Ruth match, are they online anywhere? He seemed like such a freak athlete I'd like to see how people are beating him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 I can't find a replay of the stream, but I'll let you know if I come across it. In short, Ruth is clearly athletic enough to beat anyone in the world, but his skills in scrambles--specifically freestyle situations--are still limited at this point when he comes up against world-class competition. The top guys from Iran (who he lost to) or Russia are so strong and flexible, while being so precise and efficient in every attack and counter-attack, that supreme athleticism alone just doesn't cut it. For example, in the match he lost, Ruth at least twice was behind the Iranian, at which point the Iranian went to all 4's (not a takedown in freestyle). He locked himself there like a solid-oak table and Ruth simply had no gutwrench or crotchlift or leg-ride to do anything about it. He couldn't break him down and eventually they were stale-mated and restarted. The Cuban (who is just as athletic as Ruth) that beat the same Iranian opponent in the semi's got into the same situation, instantly stuck one leg in and crotch-lifted hard and broke him down like a cheap plastic patio chair. Ruth also looks a little lost as to what to do from the top once he has a takedown. So he might face a guy he can take down some, but he'll still lose because he'll get 2 two's with no exposures, while the opponent will get 1 takedown AND score a couple gutwrenches AND out-savvy him into a pushout near the edge...so he wins the folkstyle match 4-2 and loses in freestyle 7-4. You get the point. He'll grow and improve as he focuses solely on freestyle. Burroughs (when healthy) has become extremely well-rounded and adept at freestyle-specific situations. Once that happened with him, he became nearly impossible to beat because his athleticism then becomes the trump card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 You forgot to mention Alex Dolly wrestling yesterday. He lost his first match to the eventual bronze medalist. It will be fun to hopefully see him in Vegas next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 You forgot to mention Alex Dolly wrestling yesterday. He lost his first match to the eventual bronze medalist. It will be fun to hopefully see him in Vegas next year. Good call. There were a few ex-NCAA guys wrestling for other nations as well, but perhaps the most well-known to Indiana guys was Reece Humphrey's ex-nemesis from Michigan State, NCAA champion Franklin Gomez from Puerto Rico. Gomez joined the exodus of guys going up to 65kg (143lbs) after 60kg (132lbs) was dropped from the Olympics. Although Reece has shown he can bang with 143-pounders from the U.S., he hasn't (so far) looked like the Olympic medal contender that he does at 132. That is not the case for Gomez. He was up 10-8 late against the Russian that will probably win the gold today (he then tried a silly step-over, hanging on a tick too long on a Russian takedown attempt and got put to his back and pinned). He then had to try to come back through the back of the messed up repechage scheduling system, wrestled on about 15 minutes' rest with his opponent fully rested, and ended up giving up a late takedown in his last match to lose to a Mongolian that got throttled by the Russian. He'll be a handful in Rio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattM Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Burrough's guts out what is reported to be an MCL sprain in his 3rd place match to get the Bronze Medal 61 kg/134 lbs. – Jimmy Kennedy WIN Hamka Hamka (Indonesia), 10-0 LOSS Andrei Perpelita (Moldova), 4-6 65 kg/143 lbs. – Brent Metcalf WIN Yun-Seok Lee (Korea), 11-0 LOSS Mustafa Kaya (Turkey), 4-6 74 kg/163 lbs. – Jordan Burroughs, – Bronze Medal WIN Augusto Midana (Guinea Bisau), 4-3 WIN Yunseok Lee (Korea), 13-2 WIN Rashid Kurbanov (Uzbekistan), 5-0 LOSS Denis Tsargush (Russia), 2-9 WIN Rustam Dudaev (Ukraine), fall 2:48 97 kg/213 lbs. – Jake Varner WIN William Harth (Germany), 7-0 LOSS Valeri Andriitsev (Ukraine), 3-5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 To summarize our disappointing two days of freestyle competition, we finish tied for 9th with 20 points in the team race. Russia (62 points) ran away with the title, ahead of this year's slight favorite Iran (45), Turkey (41), Azerbaijan (36), and Cuba (31). The 9th place tie keeps us in the duals World Cup event by the skin of our teeth. Not our desired situation, to say the least. Three ladies' freestyle weights began at midnight last night and continue through this morning (finals again at 10am eastern time). US national team veterans Alyssa Lampe and Helen Maroulis will wrestle for bronze. Randi Miller was eliminated early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grecoref Posted September 10, 2014 Share Posted September 10, 2014 Oh but there has been an American in the finals....in fact in 5 of the 8 gold medal matches Indiana's own Zach Errett has refereed 3 and been the mat chairman for 2 more. He's the best referee in the world and I'm very proud of him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 10, 2014 Author Share Posted September 10, 2014 For the women, Maroulis won the bronze and Lampe lost the bronze medal match on criteria, 4-4. So we've got 3 bronze through 12 weights. 3 more ladies' weights tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 11, 2014 Author Share Posted September 11, 2014 Pretty good day for the ladies so far: Whitney Conder loses in the match to get into the bronze medal match, so she's out. However, Ali Ragan will wrestle for bronze at 58kg (128lbs) and Adeleine Gray will wrestle for the World Championship at 75kg (165lbs) at 10am eastern time today. All streams are available at the new UnitedWorldWrestling.org website (formerly FILA). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattM Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 Adeleine Gray wins gold to win her second World Championship. A slight bright spot on what has been a dismal world championships so far. Ali Ragan lost in her bronze match on criteria 4-4 to finish in 5th. Priozhkova still up for the women. She should have a shot at adding to the medal count. Greco also. starts tomorrow. Base on the US Greco struggles in recent years, it would be great to see a few of those guys even reach the medal round so that we can end this Worlds on a somewhat brighter note. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 12, 2014 Author Share Posted September 12, 2014 Good day today so far. Andy Bisek, the mustachioed genius, will go for bronze in Greco at 75kg (165lbs) at 9am! This is big-time for us in Greco. He took out a Russian, beat the Fin that took out the Iranian, and lost 1-0 to the Croat who's going for gold (and should have been given one more shot on top...the Croat did NOTHING for the final 2 minutes). Awesome, awesome day for him. Also, Pirozhkova will go for our second gold in women's freestyle, also at 9am. Hunt at greco 85kg lost early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 12, 2014 Author Share Posted September 12, 2014 So some more info on our medal contenders: Bisek will try to become our first World or Olympic medalist in greco since 2009. He not only beat a Russian along the way--he beat a World and Olympic champion Russian (it's a travesty he's not going for gold with how well he wrestled!) Pirozhkova beat two girls today she had never beaten before and will wrestle the final against a Ukrainian she just beat 8-2 a few weeks ago. She also won the gold medal in the world championships in 2012 (same year as olympics in non-olympic weight). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 12, 2014 Author Share Posted September 12, 2014 Pirozhkova gets upset, 4-2, and settles for silver. Bisek wins the bronze with an impressive takedown to gut to standing gut: 2+2+4 = 8 = MATCH OVER Seriously, best day by an American in greco for a very long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted September 12, 2014 Share Posted September 12, 2014 First medal in 5 years for Greco! Hopefully we get a couple more tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 12, 2014 Author Share Posted September 12, 2014 First medal in 5 years for Greco! Hopefully we get a couple more tomorrow. Yeah, for the 10 world/olympic competitions from 2000-2009, only once (2003) did we fail to medal in Greco. So going 4 straight championships with 0 medals and not even many close calls has been incredibly frustrating. Today was a big day for Bisek and USA wrestling. Hopefully this will open the floodgates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 13, 2014 Author Share Posted September 13, 2014 Back to recent trends, unfortunately, for our Greco team this morning. All 3 guys lose early and don't get brought back into the repechage rounds. The worlds finish tomorrow with 3 more greco weights. We've got 6 medals (2 men's fs, 3 women's fs, and 1 greco) through 21 weights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maligned Posted September 14, 2014 Author Share Posted September 14, 2014 Spenser Mango is going for the US's second bronze medal in greco later today. He got a couple of great wins over very tough Turk and Hungarian opponents (both greco powers), dominated a Japanese, and then lost in the semi's to a Russian. There's a good chance he'll face the Armenian that beat him 5-4 in last year's bronze medal match. Since 2008, as a world or olympic team member every year, Spenser has lost 9 matches. SEVEN of those losses have been to medalists, including his last 5, often in very close bouts. But he hasn't broken through and medaled himself yet. Today will be his shot. Our other 2 guys lost relatively early, although Justin Lester wrestled two very tough matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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