#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) 

#WrestleZagreb

UWW to continue tests for Greco-Roman tie-breaker rule

By United World Wrestling Press

CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (June 19) — The Technical Commission of United World Wrestling has decided to further test the tie-breaking rule for Greco-Roman bouts that end with a 1-1 score.

UWW had announced in March that it would test a new Greco-Roman rule at the European Championships in April. This rule awarded victory in a 1-1 Greco-Roman bout to the wrestler who scored the first technical point.

Testing at the European Championships in Bratislava, Slovakia yielded positive results. However, to fully evaluate the rule, the Commission agreed to conduct further tests at more events.

Beginning with the U15 European Championships in Caorle, Italy from June 25, all future events till the 2025 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia will be conducted under the new rule which awards the victory to the wrestler who scored the first technical point if the match ends 1-1. This means that the 2025 World Championships in Zagreb will be part of the testing.

The change comes after it was unanimously acknowledged that the existing rule, which awards victory to the athlete who scores the last point, may unintentionally encourage passivity at the start of the bout. Wrestlers could strategically aim to secure a passivity point in the second period, ultimately winning the match without demonstrating consistent engagement throughout.

UWW once again stresses that the modification will be implemented exclusively for Greco-Roman and will apply only to matches that end with a 1-1 score. For all other score scenarios, the existing wrestling rules will remain in effect.