Greetings from The Orleans in Las Vegas, Nevada! I'm one lucky Hoosier, as I will be covering the entire week of competition for my favorite website....this one. I got in this evening and walked around the casino and floor area a bit. I saw athletes, male and female, milling around the casino, some looking intense and focused, and some enjoying what Las Vegas is famous for. Athletes from countries like Japan, Kazakshtan, Bulgaria, Russia and, yes, Trinidad and Tobago are very easy to spot, with the telltale ears and scars that often grace high level wrestlers. There are a lot of folks here from around the world, and the buzz is palpable.
Tomorrow morning, Greco competition kicks off the action, as titles will be determined at 66, 75 and 98 kilos. Draws have been released for the US, and are as follows:
66 kg/145.5 lbs -- Bryce Saddoris vs Hugo Miguel Da Silva Passos (Portugal). Two-time World member Saddoris has a favorable draw for his first match in Passos, who has had minimal international success. A two-time All-American while competing at Navy, Saddoris is also a true hometown hero, as he was a four-time state champ in Nevada. Saddoris has a very solid chance to win his first match, but he has a very tough road for a medal. 2014 World champ Davor Stefanek of Serbia is the odds on favorite to win gold, and 2014 bronze medalist Tamas Lorincz of Hungary is another strong candidate to take it all. Outside of those two, many of the top competitors from the London Olympics and the 2014 World Championships are not representing their respective countries this year. An ideal scenario for Saddoris is for him to win his opening match and then get pulled into a repechage match, where a couple of upsets could spring a bronze medalist for the former Midshipmen standout, That said, it's likely too much to ask of Saddoris at this point in his career. Hope I'm wrong.
75 kg/165 lbs -- Andy Bisek vs Luis Eduardo Avendano Rojas (Venezuela). 2014 bronze medalist Bisek opens up against an opponent he handled easily at this year's Pan Am games. Bisek has been competing internationally for a solid decade and this is his fourth World Championship. He really seems to be peaking, as evidenced by his medal at last year's competition. Despite his recent success, he's still ranked only 14th in the world, a testament to the depth of talent at this weight. Like Saddoris, Bisek has a favorable early draw, and, hopefully, he can parlay an early win into a run to the medal session. Hyeon-Woo Kim (Korea), the 2013 world champ, and Arsen Julfalakyan (Armenia), the 2014 world gold medalist, lead a strong, deep group and are the top favorites to win it all this year, although it would be foolish to underestimate Roman Vlasov of Russia, the 2012 Olympic champion and silver medalist at the 2013 Worlds. In a perfect world, Bisek puts it all together and makes a title run, but more realistically, he wins his opening match and benefits from a repechage situation. Bisek was the lone medalist in Greco for the US in 2014, and his performance on the opening day of competition could be an omen of things to come for the entire US Greco team.
98 kg/216 lb -- Caylor Williams vs Davi Jose Albino (Brazil). Three-time World team member Caylor Williams, who competed in college at UNC-Greensboro, has a tougher opening round match than Bisek and Saddoris in Albino. While Williams hasn't produced a lot of topnotch international finishes, he has displayed big-match potential, as evidenced by his huge upset of 2012 Olympic Silver medalist Rustam Totrov of Russia. However, in order to have any shot to medal tomorrow, Williams has to wrestle at his best each minute of each match. This is an especially loaded field, led by Artur Aleksanyan (Armenia), a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, 2013 World silver medalist and 2014 World champ, Islam Magomedov (Russia), the latest in a long line of nightmarish Russian grapplers, and Ghasem Rezaei (Iran), the London Olympic champion. It would be a fairly substantial upset if Williams managed a medal this year.
I will update this thread during the competition, although I have to be careful with the picture-taking, as they are very particular about this topic. I have my fingers crossed that Bisek can reproduce last year's impressive run, and either Saddoris or Williams can pull some upsets. LET'S GO U-S-A!!!!!
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