#Trnava2018

Reigning World Champs Kilty, Susaki and Velieva Roll Into Semifinals

By Eric Olanowski

TRNAVA, Slovakia (September 19) - Reigning world champions Macey KILTY (USA), Yui SUSAKI (JPN) and Khanum VELIEVA (RUS) opened up the women’s wrestling portion of the Trnava Junior World Championships with a pair of wins and moved into Wednesday night’s semifinals. 

Last year’s cadet world champion Macey Kilty breezed past her first two opponents. In her first match, Kilty quickly dismantled Tindra SJOEBERG (SWE), scoring a 12-0 technical superiority victory. In her quarterfinals bout, she commanded a 4-0 lead on Alina RUDNYTSKA LEVYTSKA (UKR) before picking up the fall to move into the 68kg semifinals where she’ll meet China’s WANG Yan.

Susaki, the reigning Paris world champion only needed 43 seconds in her opening round match to pick up the 10-0 technical superiority victory over Mariana DRAGUTAN (MDA). 

In the quarterfinals, Susaki trampled China’s ZHONG Yumei (CHN), 10-0, grabbing the 53-second technical superiority win. Through two matches, Susaki has been on the mat for a total of 99 seconds and has outscored her opponents 20-0. 

The 19-year-old Japanese superstar will meet three-time age-level world bronze medalist and reigning junior European champion Veronika GURSKAYA (RUS) in tonight’s semifinals. 

Russia’s Tampere junior world gold medalist Khanum Velieva began her day with a 6-2 first round routing of Japan’s 2016 cadet world runner-up, Miwa MORIKAWA (JPN).

She then moved to the semifinals with a 10-0 win over Rihem AYARI (TUN). In the semifinals, Velieva will wrestle Korea’s PARK Hyeonyeong (KOR).

Women's wrestling semifinals begin at 17:15, and will be followed by the Greco-Roman finals which begin at 18:00. 

RESULTS

SEMIFINALS 
50kg 
Ellen RIESTERER (GER) vs. Marina ZAKSHEVSKAYA (KAZ) 
Veronika GURSKAYA (RUS) vs. Yui SUSAKI (JPN) 

55kg
Ekaterina VERBINA (RUS) vs. Saki IGARASHI (JPN) 
Jiajing HOU (CHN) vs. Khaliunaa BAYARAA (MGL) 

59kg
Yekaterina FIRSTOVA (KAZ) vs. Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) 
Sae NANJO (JPN) vs. Anshu ANSHU (IND) 

68kg 
Khanum VELIEVA (RUS) vs. Hyeonyeong PARK (KOR) 
Yan WANG (CHN) vs. Macey Ellen KILTY (USA) 

76kg 
Yuanyuan HUANG (CHN) vs. Yasuha MATSUYUKI (JPN) 
Denise  MAKOTA STROEM (SWE) vs. Elmira KHALAEVA (RUS) 

#WrestleBudapest

Ranking Series: Tazhudinov wins gold; Sujeet, Suda champions in Budapest

By Vinay Siwach

BUDAPEST, Hungary (July 17) -- The final Ranking Series of the season begins Thursday in Budapest with seven Freestyle weight classes -- 57kg, 61kg, 65kg, 70kg, 79kg, 97kg and 125kg.

WATCH LIVE | LIVE MATCH ORDER | FREESTYLE PREVIEW

19:55: Bahrain gets a second gold medal as Shamil SHARIPOV (BRN) hangs on for a 5-3 win over Dzianis KHRAMIANKOU (UWW) in the 125kg final.

19:35: Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN) makes it another 11-0 victory and wins gold medal at 97kg. That is his fourth technical superiority win today. Since his Paris gold, Tazhudinov wrestled in Spain and won gold and now adds a second in two weeks.

19:10: Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO) is so good in his defense and he uses it to great effect and beats Magomet EVLOEV (TJK) 5-0 and takes the gold medal at 79kg at the Budapest Ranking Series.

18:35: Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) wins Ranking Series gold medal at 70kg after beating Arman ANDREASYAN (ARM) 8-0 in the final. Just a really strong performance overall as he gets ready for World Championships.

18:10: SUJEET (IND) gives India a Ranking Series gold medal in Freestyle after beating Ali RAHIMZADE (AZE). A bit of Bajrang PUNIA (IND) in Sujeet as he only gives up a activity point in the first period and upped the pace in the second scoring two takedowns and point for activity to win the gold medal.

17:45: Takara SUDA (JPN) with a buzzer-beating four-pointer in the 61kg final to win gold medal! Suda was down 3-1 against Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ) with 10 seconds remaining. Suda snaps Zhumashbek Uulu and then brings him down on the mat. Zhamashbek Uulu tries to defend but in clearly on his back and Suda has control. Suda is awarded a 3-3 criteria win.

Kyrgyzstan challenges but that is awarded four points to Suda and he wins 5-3

17:20: Luke LILLEDAHL (USA) is the champion at 57kg after he pulls off a takedown in the last 25 seconds against Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE). Both wrestlers exchanged activity points and Lilledahl led 1-1 on criteria but he scored a takedown to pull off a clear 3-1 victory.

17:00: The medal bouts in all weight classes begin now. The bronze medals will be held on Mat B and C while the gold-medal bout will be on Mat B.

Budapest Ranking Series 2025 Day 1 Semifinal Report

Olympic champions Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN), who wrestled at the Grand Prix of Spain last week in his first tournament since Paris Olympics, reached the 97kg final at the Budapest Ranking Series on Thursday.

Wrestling only in his third-ever Ranking Series, Tazhudinov posted three straight technical superiority wins and entered the final against Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL).

Opening his day with a 14-2 win, Tazhudinov manhandled Adlan VISKHANOV (FRA) and capitalized on the half-hearted attacks of the French wrestler. He hit a big double-leg attack for four points but Viskhanov got two points for exposure.

But that was only opening Tazhudinov allowed for the rest of the bout. Viskhanov tried a few leg attacks but Tazhudinov scored a takedown and two turns to be up 10-2 before an arm-bar attempt turned into takedown for his win.

Aliaksandr HUSHTYN (UWW) was next and Tazhudinov needed just a minute to beat him. In the semifinals, he took 1 minute and 48 seconds to see off Merab SULEIMANISHVILI (GEO), 10-0.

Baranowski had a contradictory run to the final as he won 6-6 on criteria against Jonathan AIELLO (USA) before a 7-5 victory over VICKY (IND) in the quarterfinals. He improved the score line to 7-3 in the semifinal against Juhwan SEO (KOR).

In other weight classes, world U20 champion Luke LILLEDAHL (USA) needed two last-second wins in quarterfinals and semifinals to book a place in the final. He defeated Niklas STECHELE (GER) 4-2 with a pushout in the last second and then handed RAHUL (IND) a 7-6 loss with a takedown in the final moments.

He will take on Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE) for the gold medal after the Azerbaijan wrestler beat Roberti DINGASHVILI (GEO), 5-2.

Asian champion at 61kg Takara SUDA (JPN) showed why he one of the medal threats at the World Championships in Zagreb. Suda wrestled two bouts before reaching the final and won them without much trouble. He began with a 12-2 win over Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) and then posted a 4-3 win over Assylzhan YESSENGELDI (KAZ).

He will face Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ) in the final after the Kyrgyzstan beat his compatriot Bekzat ALMAZ UULU (KGZ), 3-2. A win against Suda in the final can be a huge confidence booster for the Kyrgyz wrestler.

At 65kg, SUJEET (IND) was a surprise finalist after he got the better of Paris Olympic medalist Islam DUDAEV (ALB), 11-0, and then beat Vazgen TEVANYAN (ARM), 6-1, in the semifinals.

He will take on Ali RAHIMZADE (AZE) in the final who defeated Alibeg ALIBEGOV (BRN), 9-2, in the other semifinal.

At 70kg, Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) and Arman ANDREASYAN (ARM) set up the final which will be a clash between two continental silver medalists. Aoyagi was in red-hot form in Budapest and outscored his opponents 28-3 before the final.

Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO), after his small quest at 86kg, returned to 79kg and made it to the final in Budapest after a 2-0 win over Bolat SAKAYEV (KAZ) in the semifinal. He will face Asian silver medalist Magomet EVLOEV (TJK) in the final. The Tajik stunned Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE) in the semifinal using a cradle in just 21 seconds.

Kougioumtsidis dominated his matches till the semifinals but could not stop Evloev from finishing the cradle and had to make his way to the bronze-medal bout instead of gold.