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Thursday's night women's wrestling semifinals set

Thursday, April 20, 2023 - 09:36 By Eric Olanowski

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ZAGREB, Croatia (April 20) -- The fourth day of the European Championships in Zagreb, Croatia. Women's wrestling will start off with 53kg, 57kg, 62kg, 65kg and 72kg wrestlers taking the mat.

WATCH LIVE | MATCH ORDER

FULL EUROPEAN C'SHIP SCHEDULE:
- 11:30 - Qualification rounds
- 16:45 - Semifinals
- 18:00 - Finals

1:20: That's a quick morning session. We wrapped up the early session in just under two hours. We'll be back for tonight's semifinals at 16:45.

1:10: Here are the semifinals matches (as they come in): 
53kg
Stalvira ORSHUSH (HUN) vs. Maria PREVOLARAKI (GRE) 
Emma Jonna Denise MALMGREN (SWE) vs. Turkan NASIROVA (AZE)

57kg
Jowita Maria WRZESIEN (POL) vs. Zhala ALIYEVA (AZE) 
Alina HRUSHYNA AKOBIIA (UKR) vs. Evelina Georgieva NIKOLOVA (BUL) 

62kg
Grace Jacob BULLEN (NOR) vs. Bilyana Zhivkova DUDOVA (BUL) 
Johanna LINDBORG (SWE) vs. Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR) 

65kg
Tetiana SOVA RIZHKO (UKR) vs. Irina RINGACI (MDA) 
Mimi HRISTOVA (BUL) vs. Kriszta Tunde INCZE (ROU) 

72lkg
Dalma CANEVA (ITA)  vs. Buse CAVUSOGLU TOSUN (TUR) 
Alexandra Nicoleta ANGHEL (ROU) vs. Liudmyla PAVLOVETS TYCHYNA (UKR) 


12:58: Malmgren was up 11-6 and then picked up a fall to move into the semifinals against Turkan NASIROVA (AZE).

12:55: Olympic bronze medalist Evelina Georgieva NIKOLOVA (BUL) grabs a 10-0 win and moved into the semifinals. She'll face the winner of Alina HRUSHYNA AKOBIIA (UKR) and Mathilde Hélène RIVIERE (FRA). 

If Hrushyna wins, it'd be a rematch of last years European finals, which was won by the Ukrainian.

12:49: Big matchup going on over on Mat C.  Emma Jonna Denise MALMGREN (SWE) and Zeynep YETGIL (TUR) are in a 7-4 battle right now as we head into the second period.

12:30: Grace Bullen picked up her second quick 10-0 win. She tech'd Selvi ILYASOGLU (TUR) and Amina Roxana CAPEZAN (ROU) and punched her ticket to the 62kg semifinals.

12:18: There are good and bad parts to having seeded athletes. One of the bad parts is having to wait a few hours before we get to see our superstars compete. Either way, they stars are starting to show up on the match board. Here are a few high-profile athletes coming up soon:

Mat A | Bout 258: Alina HRUSHYNA AKOBIIA (UKR) 
Mat B | Bout 275: Grace Jacob BULLEN (NOR) 
Mat B | Bout 277: Evelina Georgieva NIKOLOVA (BUL) 
Mat C | Bout 289: Irina RINGACI (MDA) 
Mat C |Bout 292: Bilyana Zhivkova DUDOVA (BUL) 
Mat C |Bout 293  Emma Jonna Denise MALMGREN (SWE) 

11:47: Our first qualification match of the morning will take place on Mat A. It'll be Olympic bronze medalist  Iryna KOLIADENKO (UKR) taking on Mariana CHERDIVARA ESANU (MDA) in the first bout of the day.

11:37: Welcome back to the Arena Zagreb for the second day women's wrestling and the fourth overall day of action at the European Championships.We'll start today with a few repechage bouts for those who fell to eventual finalists.

#WrestleSamokov

Japan defends U20 Worlds women's team title

Friday, August 22, 2025 - 23:31 By Vinay Siwach

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SAMOKOV, Bulgaria (August 22) -- Japan defended its Women's Wrestling team title at the World U20 Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria with two more gold medals on Friday.

The Women's Wrestling competition came to a close in Bulgaria with three weight classes, 50kg, 53kg and 72kg, and Japan won the first two gold medals while India won 72kg. India finished second in the team race with 140 points, 25 less than Japan which had 165 points.

Rinka OGAWA (JPN) won the 50kg gold medal with 9-3 win over three-time age-group world medalist Audrey JIMINEZ (USA) in the final. Ogawa gave up the first takedown but she hit a single-leg and turn to lead 4-2 at the break.

The second period was more scrappy but Ogawa gave up just a reversal while four points to win 8-3. The United States challenged at the end of match but there was no points for Jiminez and one more point to Ogawa's score for the lost challenge.

This was Jiminez's third loss to a Japanese wrestler in finals of World Championships. She lost to Umi ITO (JPN) in the World U20 and U23 finals in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Her one other loss came to Yanrong LI (USA) in 2023 at the World U20 Championships. She will now look to change her fortunes at the senior World Championships in Zagreb next month.

Japan's second gold cane with Natsumi MASUDA (JPN) who defeated European U20 champion Anastasiia POLSKA (UKR) in controlled 6-0 final. She scored three takedowns in six minutes for the win and earn herself the gold medal.

At 72kg, world U17 silver medalist last month, KAJAL (IND) managed to survive a fall attempt and a threating Yuqi LIU (CHN) in the final and win her first world U20 title to go with her world U17 gold from 2024.

Kajal used snapdowns to pressure Liu and score three takedowns and lead 6-0 but as the match progressed Liu hit a leg-attack and scored a takedown, and cradle Kajal who barely managed to get out off the lock and keep the 6-4 lead.

Both traded a takedown each in the remainder of the bout but Kajal held on for an 8-6 lead and win the gold medal.

RESULTS

50kg
GOLD: Rinka OGAWA (JPN) df. Audrey JIMENEZ (USA), 9-3

BRONZE: SHRUTI (IND) df. Josephine WRENSCH (GER), 6-0
BRONZE: Na HU (CHN) df. Diana RYSOVA (UKR), 7-5

53kg
GOLD: Natsumi MASUDA (JPN) df. Anastasiia POLSKA (UKR), 6-0

BRONZE: SAARIKA (IND) df. Ilona VALCHUK (POL), 11-0
BRONZE: Kseniya KOSTSENICH (UWW) df. Abigale COOPER (USA), 11-10

72kg
GOLD: KAJAL (IND) df. Yuqi LIU (CHN), 8-6

BRONZE: Kristina BRATCHIKOVA (UWW) df. Haticenur SARI (TUR), 17-12
BRONZE: Kaiyrkul SHARSHEBAEVA (KGZ) vs. Jasmine ROBINSON (USA), via inj. def.