In 68kg debut, Blades suplexes her way to gold

Saturday, February 8, 2025 - 06:55 By Vinay Siwach

ZAGREB, Croatia (February 8) -- Kennedy BLADES (USA) may have changed her weight class but there was no change in her style. Wrestling at 68kg, down from 76kg in which she won the Paris Olympics silver medal, Blades won the gold medal at Zagreb Open Ranking Series on Friday.

READ MORE: Blades shines, Jafarov injured

In a round-robin bracket which had four bouts for each wrestler, Blades was a notch above the rest as she secured two falls and two victory via superiority with none of the four bouts going to the second period.

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Blades had moved from 76kg to 68kg for this tournament and is expected to remain at this weight class for the Los Angeles Olympic cycle.

"I feel really good," Blades said about the weight cut. "I ate the night so I'm just happy that I have a lot of energy still, and I was able to use my power, even though same day weigh-in. I'm feeling great."

Kennedy BLADES (USA) completes a suplex over Karolina POK (HUN). (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Blades began the day with a fall over Kendra DACHER (FRA) and another over world bronze medalist Adela HANZLICKOVA (CZE) before Noémi SZABADOS (HUN) became the victim of her pace. Blades' moment of the day came in the Round 5 in the evening session when she launched a near-perfect suplex against Karolina POK (HUN). She was awarded five points for the suplex.

"I feel like a lot of people overlook wrestling," she said. "So I just want to make it as exciting as possible, and if I can do a big move or make it like, oh, then I just go for the big move."

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The move over Pok reminded wrestling fans of the beautiful suplex Blades performed over Catalina AXENTE (ROU) at the Paris Olympics in the first bout itself. Blades went on to win the silver medal, and five months later she has captured her first Ranking Series gold medal using the same move.

"I've just been with my college team at University of Iowa," she said. "After Olympics, I only took about two weeks off because I was like I have college season. So I eased into it. I've just been competing and training hard and I just feel very prepared for what's to come."

At 68kg, Amit ELOR (USA) is the Olympic champion but with a new Olympic cycle, it is expected that she will be at 72kg before moving around to decide which weight class is beneficial for her. Blades hinted she will remain at 68kg for the World Championships.

"Honestly, I'm still deciding what I want to do," Blades said. "But I just feel really good at this whole tournament. I know it was plus two kilos, but I mean, I weighed like 68.9kg and I was like hydrated. So I'm like I'm fine. We'll see. I feel like it might be the move, so I just have to talk to my coaches, I'm going to figure some things out."

The U.S. won another gold medal at 62kg as Adaugo NWACHUKWU (USA) won three bouts in the round-robin bracket, keeping a clean slate.

Nwachukwu was in trouble of finishing second as former world champion Bilyana DUDOVA (BUL) was winning 2-0 with less than 20 seconds left. However, Nwachukwu got a takedown and a turn to win the bout and confirm her gold medal.

In an all Azerbaijan final at 59kg, Hiunai HURBANOVA (AZE) defeated Alyona KOLESNIK (AZE), 4-2, winning the gold medal.

Greco-Roman also began on Friday and Iran had a forgetful day in office. Treating the Zagreb Open as a trial for the Asian Championships, Iran had brought multiple wrestlers in various categories.

But it failed to win gold medal in the two Greco-Roman weight classes in action on Friday and drew a blank at 67kg.

U20 world champion Ahmadreza MOHSEN NEZHAD (IRI) dropped his semifinal against Valentin PETIC (MDA) 6-1 and then lost his bronze medal bout. Haavard JOERGENSEN (NOR) stopped Mohammadreza GHOLAMI (IRI), 10-1, in the other semifinal.

Joergensen capped off his day with a stunning 9-1 win over Petic in the 67kg to win the gold medal.

At 63kg, U23 world silver medalist Dinislam BAMMATOV (AIN) dominated the field and defeated Mohammad KESHTKAR (IRI), via fall in the final to win the gold medal.

RESULTS

Women's Wrestling

59kg
GOLD: Hiunai HURBANOVA (AZE) df. Alyona KOLESNIK (AZE), 4-2

BRONZE: Micheala BECK (USA) df. Mariana CHERDIVARA (MDA), via inj. def.

62kg
GOLD: Adaugo NWACHUKWU (USA)
SILVER: Amina TANDELOVA (AIN)
BRONZE: Bilyana DUDOVA (BUL)

65kg
GOLD: Dinara KUDAEVA (AIN)
SILVER: Eniko ELEKES (HUN)
BRONZE: Elizaveta PETLIAKOVA (AIN)

68kg
GOLD: Kennedy BLADES (USA)
SILVER: Adela HANZLICKOVA (CZE)
BRONZE: Noémi SZABADOS (HUN)

Greco-Roman

63kg
GOLD: Dinislam BAMMATOV (AIN) df. Mohammad KESHTKAR (IRI), via fall (10-0)

BRONZE: Ellis COLEMAN (USA) df. Ziya BABASHOV (AZE), 5-3
BRONZE: AYTJAN KHALMAKHANOV (UZB) df. Islomjon BAKHRAMOV (UZB), 5-4

67kg
GOLD: Haavard JOERGENSEN (NOR) df. Valentin PETIC (MDA), 9-1

BRONZE: Razvan ARNAUT (ROU) df. Ahmadreza MOHSEN NEZHAD (IRI), 5-0
BRONZE: Dominik ETLINGER (CRO) df. Mohammadreza GHOLAMI (IRI), 10-1

#Grappling

Grappling World Championships 2025 Entries

Tuesday, September 30, 2025 - 11:55 By United World Wrestling Press

NOVI SAD, Serbia (September 30) -- The Grappling World Championships are set to be held in Novi Sad, Serbia from October 14 to 16 at the SPENS Arena.

The three-day tournament will see Grappling action in both men's and women's on September 14. The second day will have competition in both Grappling and Grappling Gi and only Grappling Gi on third day will finish the tournament.

All action will be live on the UWW website and highlights on UWW Grappling Instagram.

Men's Grappling Gi

58kg
Razmik MISAKYAN (ARM)
Farhad BAGIROV (AZE)
Samir BEN BELKACEM (FRA)
Daviti ZEDGINIDZE (GEO)
Alikhan ALSHINBAY (KAZ)
Rakhymzhan TURGANBEK (KAZ)
Zhyldyzbek ABYLBEKOV (KGZ)
Jerzy IZDEBSKI (POL)
Bohdan CHORNEI (UKR)
Joseph DIEHL (USA)
Erik LUKER (USA)

62kg
Rafayel KOSTANYAN (ARM)
Emil VERDIYEV (AZE)
Cedrick BISSOUT SIGNANG (CMR)
Lucas AUBRY (FRA)
Levente VARKONDI (HUN)
Mark BODO (HUN)
MANDEEP (IND)
Bekzat KAZTAYEV (KAZ)
Dmytro BARANOV (UKR)
Vadym SIROSHTAN (UKR)
Andrii TSVYK (UKR)
Asher URBAN HOYER (USA)
Kiryl AHEIKA (UWW)
Ruslan RADZHABKHANOV (UWW)
Magomedbek TEMEEV (UWW)

66kg
Mayis NERSESYAN (ARM)
Cedric EYENGA (CMR)
Giovanni SUAREZ ARTILES (ESP)
Cristofer MARTIN BARRIOS (ESP)
Anthony DE OLIVEIRA (FRA)
Giorgi RAZMADZE (GEO)
Adam VERES KOVACS (HUN)
Milan LUKASZ (HUN)
Adlan ASUEV (KAZ)
Nurassyl TURUSPEKOV (KAZ)
Illia SVIATUN (UKR)
Yurii CHERKALIUK (UKR)
Jesse SOSA (USA)
Angel DIAZ (USA)
Artur AGASHIRINOV (UWW)
Magomed MAGOMEDOV (UWW)
Avzal AKHMETOV (UZB)

71kg
Max KAMA (CMR)
Kevin MARTIN TINOCO (ESP)
Francisco ALCALDE TORREBLANCA (ESP)
Samuel CHAGNY (FRA)
Sacha MARGUERITE (FRA)
Dzhimsher RAZMADZE (GEO)
Nico PULVERMUELLER (GER)
Stefanos VAVILIS (GRE)
Davi DIMOPOULOS SAID (GRE)
Mark UJVARI (HUN)
Sandor LAKATOS (HUN)
Chandra PRAKASH (IND)
Zhassulan ZHETPISBAY (KAZ)
Nurbek TALBUDIN (KAZ)
Piotr DUDZINSKI (POL)
Kacper GARCZYNSKI (POL)
Milos GAJIC (SRB)
Ahmet BASARAN (TUR)
Ivan RIABCHENKO (UKR)
Vadym SKRYNYTSIA (UKR)
Nicolas ARNEL (USA)
Andrei SKOLYSH (UWW)
Zaur AKHMEDOV (UWW)
Said ZAIPULAEV (UWW)
Feruzbek UROKOV (UZB)

77kg
Salomon MAYENGUE (CMR)
Aron HERNANDEZ MONTERO (ESP)
Hector SEPULVEDA PALMA (ESP)
Loan MOUTHON (FRA)
Arthur DEMONCEAUX (FRA)
Zoltan TOTH (HUN)
Csaba SZABO (HUN)
Jatin KUMAR (IND)
Nagaraja KAVADI (IND)
Darkhan TOLYBAYEV (KAZ)
Aziz ALIYEV (KAZ)
Dumitru CEBAN (MDA)
Kamil ROSIAK (POL)
Jakub NAJDEK (POL)
Pavlo MAKSYMCHUK (UKR)
Illia SUKHODIEIEV (UKR)
Rakhim BIBULATOV (UWW)
Abduragim MAGOMEDOV (UWW)
Adolfo SUAREZ ARIAS (VEN)

84kg
Suren KHURDAYAN (ARM)
Hajimurad PURTIYEV (AZE)
Juan SUAREZ MONTESDEOCA (ESP)
Ruslan VALIEV (FRA)
Samy MEZACHE (FRA)
Lukas BRESSMER (GER)
Dimitrios MAVRANTONIS (GRE)
Soma SOLTESZ (HUN)
Christian FRILLICI (ITA)
Adlan MADAYEV (KAZ)
Magzhan MARATKHAN (KAZ)
Cristian TUGULEA (MDA)
Igor DZIAG (POL)
Kacper ROT (POL)
Tanguy DARBELLAY (SUI)
Talha UMAR (TUR)
Mykhailo MUZYCHENKO (UKR)
Daniel SHROCK (USA)
Dzhabrail ISRAPILOV (UWW)
Idris OMAROV (UWW)

92kg
Pablo ESTEPA NIETO (ESP)
Antonio GARCIA CONEJO (ESP)
Wilfried EDMUND (FRA)
Reda MEBTOUCHE (FRA)
Amirani SVIMONISHVILI (GEO)
Leonhard PREIN (GER)
Apostolos KOUGIAMIS MICHOS (GRE)
Konstantinos VAVOURAS (GRE)
Levente LAKY (HUN)
Akos SZEKERES (HUN)
Antonio SALTUPS CARETTO (ITA)
Ruslan ISRAILOV (KAZ)
Ramazan KUSSAINOV (KAZ)
Mantas DAUBLYS (LTU)
Buyannemekh MUNKHSUKH (MGL)
Joris ROOKHUIJZEN (NED)
Mateusz MAZUR (POL)
Aleksandar DUKANOVIC (SRB)
Vladyslav ZENCHENKO (UKR)
Timothy BARR (USA)
Ramazan SHIKHSHABEKOV (UWW)
Alibek SULEIMANOV (UWW)

100kg
Vasif SAFARBAYOV (AZE)
Pavel SLANINA ANTON (ESP)
Saba DJAVAKHICHVILI (FRA)
Herve REDON (FRA)
Ilias BOUKIS (GRE)
Ramazan ABDRAKHIMOV (KAZ)
Konstantin LI (KGZ)
Eldar RAFIGAEV (MDA)
Yevhenii MURADOV (UKR)
Shamil MAZHIDKHANOV (UWW)
Khasan ZAPIROV (UWW)
Gilberto AYALA RODRIGUEZ (VEN)

130kg
Nizami GAFAROV (AZE)
Abraham COBY MARTINEZ (ESP)
Luc ROUSSEAU (FRA)
Niklas KOPICKI (GER)
Ioannis KARGIOTAKIS (GRE)
Arystan AITMOLDIN (KAZ)
Alexandr ROMANOV (MDA)
Ivan SNIHUR (UKR)
Oleksandr KOLDOVSKYI (UKR)
John HANSEN (USA)
Abu GUDANATOV (UWW)
Bilal KURBABAGAMAEV (UWW)

Women’s Grappling Gi

53kg
Lilit DANIELYAN (ARM)
Pernelle ABOMO (CMR)
Carlota PRENDES LARIOS (ESP)
Giulia ANGIOLINI (ITA)
Zuzanna KOWALSKA (POL)
Viktoriia ISAIEVA (UKR)
Evelina FLORIAK (UKR)
Anorbi GRISHINA (UWW)
Radomira OSTANINA (UWW)

58kg
Minerva MONTERO PEREZ (ESP)
MAMTA (IND)
Pinky SHARMA (IND)
Shynar UZBEKOVA (KAZ)
Nuraiym MUNAITBAS (KAZ)
Daria BRZOZOWSKA (POL)
Magdalena GIEC (POL)
Eda AYDEMIR (TUR)
Tetiana ASTAKHOVA (UKR)
Breanna STIKKELMAN (USA)
Rachel GUTIERREZ (USA)
Alina KOPEIKINA (UWW)
Kseniia PASTUKHOVA GUBAIDULINA (UWW)

64kg
Mia MONTESINOS PERDOMO (ESP)
Ellen OBERBACH (GER)
Zafeiria PANAGIOTARAKOU (GRE)
Szabina SZALAY (HUN)
Emma ROSINI (ITA)
Milana MURGUZOVA (KAZ)
Adrianna MAZUR (POL)
Sylwia WIERZBOWSKA (POL)
Andela NESOVANOVIC (SRB)
Snezhana MORAR (UKR)
Viktoriia SYNIAVINA SERHIIENKO (UKR)
Sheliah LINDSEY (USA)
Emily HAUSER (USA)
Renata IAKUBOVA (UWW)
Alsu IANSHINA (UWW)

71kg
Fanny MOUNGOUN (CMR)
Daniella SANTANA FABELO (ESP)
Alycia QUENEE (FRA)
Mendy MACATIS (GER)
Sandra TRIEBEL (GER)
Maja SALAMON (POL)
Anna KOTIUK (UKR)
Sarah PAUL (USA)
Christina HANSEN (USA)
Valentina PAVLOVA (UWW)
Anna REMNEVA (UWW)

90kg
Justyna SITKO (POL)
Tatiana KABANOVA (UWW)
Alena VLASOVA (UWW)

Men’s Grappling No-Gi

62kg
Rafayel KOSTANYAN (ARM)
Emil VERDIYEV (AZE)
Lucas AUBRY (FRA)
Mark BODO (HUN)
Levente VARKONDI (HUN)
MANDEEP (IND)
Talgat ZHUMAGALIYEV (KAZ)
Adlan ASUEV (KAZ)
Dmytro BARANOV (UKR)
Andrii TSVYK (UKR)
Asher URBAN HOYER (USA)
Kiryl AHEIKA (UWW)
Ruslan RADZHABKHANOV (UWW)
Magomedbek TEMEEV (UWW)

66kg
Mayis NERSESYAN (ARM)
Giovanni SUAREZ ARTILES (ESP)
Cristofer MARTIN BARRIOS (ESP)
Anthony DE OLIVEIRA (FRA)
Giorgi RAZMADZE (GEO)
Adam VERES KOVACS (HUN)
Milan LUKASZ (HUN)
Bekzat KAPASHOV (KAZ)
Nurassyl TURUSPEKOV (KAZ)
Illia SVIATUN (UKR)
Yurii CHERKALIUK (UKR)
Jesse SOSA (USA)
Angel DIAZ (USA)
Khabib ATLUEV (UWW)
Magomed SHAKHBANOV (UWW)

71kg
Kevin MARTIN TINOCO (ESP)
Francisco ALCALDE TORREBLANCA (ESP)
Samuel CHAGNY (FRA)
Sacha MARGUERITE (FRA)
Dzhimsher RAZMADZE (GEO)
Nico PULVERMUELLER (GER)
Stefanos VAVILIS (GRE)
Davi DIMOPOULOS SAID (GRE)
Mark UJVARI (HUN)
Chandra PRAKASH (IND)
Federico ROTONI (ITA)
Zhassulan ZHETPISBAY (KAZ)
Nurbek TALBUDIN (KAZ)
Kenzo BIYONG (NED)
Piotr DUDZINSKI (POL)
Kacper GARCZYNSKI (POL)
Milos GAJIC (SRB)
Jalol MAMADALIBEKOV (TJK)
Ahmet BASARAN (TUR)
Ivan RIABCHENKO (UKR)
Vadym SKRYNYTSIA (UKR)
Nicolas ARNEL (USA)
Andrei SKOLYSH (UWW)
Apandi AMAGAEV (UWW)
Kurban KADIEV (UWW)

77kg
Aron HERNANDEZ MONTERO (ESP)
Hector SEPULVEDA PALMA (ESP)
Loan MOUTHON (FRA)
Arthur DEMONCEAUX (FRA)
Angelos NIKOLOPOULOS (GRE)
Zoltan TOTH (HUN)
Csaba SZABO (HUN)
Jatin KUMAR (IND)
Nagaraja KAVADI (IND)
Sayyed CHERDEYAN (IRI)
Darkhan TOLYBAYEV (KAZ)
Dumitru CEBAN (MDA)
Kamil ROSIAK (POL)
Jakub NAJDEK (POL)
Pavlo MAKSYMCHUK (UKR)
Illia SUKHODIEIEV (UKR)
Sam SCHWARTZAPFEL (USA)
Gazimagomed GAZIEV (UWW)
Magomed IBRAGIMOV (UWW)
Adolfo SUAREZ ARIAS (VEN)

84kg
Suren KHURDAYAN (ARM)
Hajimurad PURTIYEV (AZE)
Juan SUAREZ MONTESDEOCA (ESP)
Ruslan VALIEV (FRA)
Samy MEZACHE (FRA)
Beka KARTVELISHVILI (GEO)
Nika MUSHKUDIANI (GEO)
Lukas BRESSMER (GER)
Leonhard PREIN (GER)
Dimitrios MAVRANTONIS (GRE)
Kleinto ZOLLANI (GRE)
Lorinc NAGY (HUN)
Christian FRILLICI (ITA)
Maxat TOLENDI (KAZ)
Rauan ZHAKENULY (KAZ)
Cristian TUGULEA (MDA)
Igor DZIAG (POL)
Kacper ROT (POL)
Tanguy DARBELLAY (SUI)
Talha UMAR (TUR)
Mykhailo MUZYCHENKO (UKR)
Dmytrii TKACHENKO (UKR)
Giuseppe LAMANNA (USA)
Daniel SHROCK (USA)
Amirkhan GITINOMAGOMEDOV (UWW)
Davud MAGOMEDOV (UWW)

92kg
Pablo ESTEPA NIETO (ESP)
Wilfried EDMUND (FRA)
Reda MEBTOUCHE (FRA)
Amirani SVIMONISHVILI (GEO)
Apostolos KOUGIAMIS MICHOS (GRE)
Fotios TZAFERIS (GRE)
Levente LAKY (HUN)
Akos SZEKERES (HUN)
Alessandro ARDINI (ITA)
Antonio SALTUPS CARETTO (ITA)
Ruslan ISRAILOV (KAZ)
Mantas DAUBLYS (LTU)
Buyannemekh MUNKHSUKH (MGL)
Joris ROOKHUIJZEN (NED)
Mateusz MAZUR (POL)
Aleksandar DUKANOVIC (SRB)
Vladyslav ZENCHENKO (UKR)
Anthony ROBINSON (USA)
Timothy BARR (USA)
Murad ABDULATIPOV (UWW)
Islam TAPPASKHANOV (UWW)

100kg
Vasif SAFARBAYOV (AZE)
Pavel SLANINA ANTON (ESP)
Herve REDON (FRA)
Saba DJAVAKHICHVILI (FRA)
Aleksandre TEVZADZE (GEO)
Ilias BOUKIS (GRE)
Georgios APOSTOLOU (GRE)
Ramazan ABDRAKHIMOV (KAZ)
Yerulan TOLEUBEKOV (KAZ)
Konstantin LI (KGZ)
Eldar RAFIGAEV (MDA)
Armin DOUZALI (NOR)
Yevhenii MURADOV (UKR)
Mukhamed URUSOV (UWW)
Khasan ZAPIROV (UWW)

Women’s Grappling No-Gi

53kg
Lilit DANIELYAN (ARM)
Carlota PRENDES LARIOS (ESP)
Giulia ANGIOLINI (ITA)
Zuzanna KOWALSKA (POL)
Viktoriia ISAIEVA (UKR)
Evelina FLORIAK (UKR)
Anorbi GRISHINA (UWW)
Valeriia SHUVALOVA (UWW)

58kg
Minerva MONTERO PEREZ (ESP)
Ellen OBERBACH (GER)
Lili RACZ (HUN)
MAMTA (IND)
Pinky SHARMA (IND)
Shynar UZBEKOVA (KAZ)
Nuraiym MUNAITBAS (KAZ)
Daria BRZOZOWSKA (POL)
Magdalena GIEC (POL)
Eda AYDEMIR (TUR)
Tetiana ASTAKHOVA (UKR)
Breanna STIKKELMAN (USA)
Rachel GUTIERREZ (USA)
Varvara MASHKINA (UWW)
Kseniia PASTUKHOVA GUBAIDULINA (UWW)

64kg
Mia MONTESINOS PERDOMO (ESP)
Mendy MACATIS (GER)
Zafeiria PANAGIOTARAKOU (GRE)
Szabina SZALAY (HUN)
Emma ROSINI (ITA)
Milana MURGUZOVA (KAZ)
Adrianna MAZUR (POL)
Sylwia WIERZBOWSKA (POL)
Andela NESOVANOVIC (SRB)
Snezhana MORAR (UKR)
Viktoriia SYNIAVINA SERHIIENKO (UKR)
Sheliah LINDSEY (USA)
Emily HAUSER (USA)
Alsu IANSHINA (UWW)
Veronika KARAKHONOVA (UWW)

71kg
Daniella SANTANA FABELO (ESP)
Alycia QUENEE (FRA)
Sandra TRIEBEL (GER)
Eleni CHRYSIKAKI (GRE)
Maja SALAMON (POL)
Anna KOTIUK (UKR)
Sarah PAUL (USA)
Christina HANSEN (USA)
Valentina PAVLOVA (UWW)
Anna REMNEVA (UWW)

90kg
Justyna SITKO (POL)
Tatiana KABANOVA (UWW)
Alena VLASOVA (UWW)

In 68kg debut, Blades suplexes her way to gold

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Grappling World Championships 2025 Entries