#WrestleAmman

U20 World Championships day six GR semis set

Saturday, August 19, 2023 - 07:17 By Vinay Siwach

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AMMAN, Jordan (August 19) -- Entering another day of wrestling at the U20 World Championships in Amman, Jordan. Five Greco-Roman weight classes in action as 60kg, 67kg, 72kg, 82kg and 97kg wrestlers take the mats. Saturday is the final full day of wrestling at the tournament.

WATCH LIVE | MATCH ORDER

The semifinals for the evening session

60kg
Emirlan DUISHENALIEV (KGZ) vs. Suren AGHAJANYAN (ARM)
Amirreza DEHBOZORGI (IRI) vs. SUMIT (IND)

67kg
Nestori MANNILA (FIN) vs. Gaspar TERTERYAN (ARM)
Ahoura BOUVEIRI PIANI (IRI) vs. Moustafa ALAMELDIN (EGY)

72kg
Levente LEVAI (HUN) vs. Aaron BELLSCHEIDT (GER)
Anri PUTKARADZE (GEO) vs. Imran ALIEV (AIN)

82kg
Yasin YAZDI (IRI) vs. Ruben GEVORGYAN (ARM)
Data CHKHAIDZE (GEO) vs. Alperen BERBER (TUR)

97kg
Rostislav COVALI (MDA) vs. Gor AYVAZYAN (GEO)
Abubakar KHASLAKHANAU (AIN) vs. Kevin USPENSKI (EST)

15:15: Kevin USPENSKI (EST) with a fall over Sebastian WARCHOL (POL) at 97kg and he moves into the semifinals against Abubakar KHASLAKHANAU (AIN)

15:10: Abubakar KHASLAKHANAU (AIN) with a monster five-point throw over Magomed MUKHTAROV (AIN) and he then secures a takedown to win 11-3. Mukhtarov challenges for a foul but the review sees a clean takedown. Khaslakhanau wins 12-3 at 97kg

15:00: Alperen BERBER (TUR) marches on at 82kg. He wins 3-1 over Ivan CHMYR (UKR) after scoring from par terre and sneaking out when he was put in par terre

14:40: Moustafa ALAMELDIN (EGY) once again has this crowd on its feet! He has two big suplexes as he beats Azat SARIYAR (TUR) 11-0 and moves into the 67kg semifinals. 

14:25: Suren AGHAJANYAN (ARM) pins Ilkin GURBANOV (AZE) to move into the 60kg quarterfinals. He will take on U20 European champion Anri KHOZREVANIDZE (GEO) who beats Kuvonchbek YAKHSHIBOEV (UZB) 7-5.

14:15: Amirreza DEHBOZORGI (IRI) looking for a second U20 world gold. He beats Huangsheng WU (CHN) 6-0 in the pre-quarterfinals at 60kg. 

14:05: Alperen BERBER (TUR) with a 10-0 win in his first bout against Wojciech IWANOWSKI (POL) at 82kg. Berber is a former U17 world champion

13:40: Yasin YAZDI (IRI) survives an early onslaught from Islam YEVLOYEV (KAZ) to come back and win at 82kg. He moves into the quarterfinals against Reon KAKEGAWA (JPN).

13:15: Moustafa ALAMELDIN (EGY) gets the crowd involved as he upsets returning champion Kanan ABDULLAZADE (AZE) 7-5 at 72kg. Alameldin got a big throw from par terre and Abdullazade was left to play catch up

12:35: U20 world champion from 2021 Amirreza DEHBOZORGI (IRI) gets going with an 11-0 win over Kemal SEVGILI (TUR) at 67kg. Dehbozorgi looks solid 

12:15: Amirreza AKBARI (IRI) takes out former U17 world silver medalist Darius KIEFER (GER) 6-1. Kiefer failed to turn Akbari from par terre while Akbari kept the pressure to beat Kiefer

11:45: Anri PUTKARADZE (GEO) allowed Gunhee LEE (KOR) to score four points against him but manages to score nine of his own to win his 72kg opening-round bout.

11:35: That bout took ages but Hajime KIKUTA (JPN) won 14-13 against Abdullo ALIEV (UZB) at 72kg. Kikuta led 13-7 with just 15 seconds on the clock and Aliev got a takedown, a back roll and a gut wrench for six points to tie it 13-13. Kikuta, however, had criteria for a four-pointer he hit earlier.

11:20: Defending champion Kanan ABDULLAZADE (AZE) trailed 2-2 against UMESH (IND) but he scores two pushouts on Umesh's attacks to win 4-2 at 72kg. That bout took a lot out of Abdullazade there. 

11:10: Former U17 world champion Joel ADAMS (USA) suffers an opening round loss to Artur JEREMEJEV (EST) at 67kg. Adams will look to improve his strength for the U20 level after his first year at this level

10:55: Zsolt TAKACS (HUN) thought he has a chance against Ahoura BOUVEIRI PIANI (IRI) but the latter rolls to a 10-2 win at 67kg after Takacs got an initial takedown

10:40: What better start we could have asked for? A thriller between Nika BROLADZE (GEO) and Arslanbek SALIMOV (POL) saw the Poland wrestler win 11-11 on criteria. Broladze used a big four-point throw to make it 11-9 but in the final second, Salimov scored a stepout for one point. Broladze was cautioned for fleeing which made the score 11-11 and gave Salimov the win.

10:30: Done with the first round of repechage bouts and we are moving into the qualification rounds of five Greco-Roman weight classes -- 60kg, 67kg, 72kg, 82kg and 97kg. 

10:00: Five days of high-paced wrestling have flown by. But welcome to another day of wrestling as Greco-Roman continues in Amman.

#WrestleParis

10 seeded showdowns we need to see at Paris 2024 (No. 1-5)

Friday, July 19, 2024 - 11:28 By Eric Olanowski

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PARIS, France (July 18) --- Yesterday, we launched the No. 6-10 must-watch seeded matches that could take place in the quarterfinals and semifinals of the upcoming Paris Olympic Games. We continue the series with the top five matchups that could be between seeded athletes in the quarterfinals and semifinals.

SCHEDULE | PARIS 2024 EVENT PAGE 

The top eight Ranking Series point scorers from the 2023 World Championships, 2024 Continental Championships, and the Croatian and Hungarian Ranking Series events earned a top eight seed in Paris. The remaining eight wrestlers will be randomly drawn into their respective brackets.

Here are the top-five seeded showdowns that can take place in Paris:

5. 97kg SEMIFINAL – No. 1 Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) vs. No. 4 Gabriel ROSILLO (CUB)
If you were to rank the ten Greco-Roman favorites expected to win gold at last year’s World Championships, Artur ALEKSANYAN (ARM) would have been either at the top or second on that list.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), no one told Gabriel Rosillo that the list existed.

In their lone career meeting, Rosillo, with the most perfectly timed arm drag that the wrestling world has seen in recent memory, stopped Aleksanyan from winning his fifth world gold medal. The Cuban sucked in an arm drag to Aleksanyan’s right arm, then perfectly timed a re-drag to the left side just as the Armenian pulled away, giving him the go-ahead takedown with 23 seconds left.

After the match, Aleksanyan said he relaxed at the most inopportune time and he’ll use the loss to Rosillo as motivation heading into Paris.

The second meeting between Aleksanyan and Rosillo could happen on August 6 in the 97kg semifinals.

4. 125kg SEMIFINAL – No. 1 Amir ZARE (IRI) vs. No. 4 Taha AKGUL (TUR)
Zare and Akgul have been going blow for blow for the last three years, with Zare grabbing the 2-1 advantage from his 2021 and 2023 wins, which were sandwiched between a 2022 world championship loss.

Zare picked up the biggest win of his career (at the time) with his win 4-0 shutout win over Akgul at the 2021 Oslo World Championships. Up until that point, the Iranian was looked at as a tier-two heavyweight. His win over Akgul in Norway pushed him into the ranks with Akgul, Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO) and Gable STEVESON (USA).

In the second meeting, Akgul stood tall on the United World Wrestling logo in the center of the mat and didn't budge. He evened the score at one match apiece, striking late with a counter-offensive 360 spin, moving into the world finals with a 3-3 win.

Zare regained his crown in the third meeting, with a tactical heavy-handed 4-0 win.

Zare knew Akgul wasn’t much of an offensive threat and couldn't afford to make a similar mistake as he did the year before, giving up the match-deciding takedown with no time left. He remained composed and scored a pair of stepouts and a takedown to win 4-0, giving him the 2-1 advantage heading into Paris.

The fourth meeting between world champions Zare and Akgul could happen on August 9 in the 125kg semifinals.

3. 57kg SEMIFINAL –  No. 2 Rei HIGUCHI (JPN ) vs. No. 3 Arsen HARUTYUNYAN (ARM)
Harutyunyan and Higuchi are two guys with unlimited offensive and have gas tanks that rival a nuclear submarine.

That was on display in last year’s Freestyle Match of the Year, where Harutyunyan and Higuchi put up a combined 30 points in one match—17 points in the first period and 13 in the second.

In their epic second meeting, Higuchi surrendered an early 6-0 lead, but clawed his way back before the ending whistle in the first, taking the 10-7 lead with a beautiful four-point arm-throw. Higuchi’s onslaught of attacks continued as the second period started, scoring six straight points and extending his lead to 16-8. From there, Higuchi seemingly shut it down to conserve energy for the semifinals, as he gave up six unanswered points but still won the bout, 16-14.

The second meeting between Higuchi and Harutyunyan would go down on August 8 in the 57kg semifinals.

2. 97kg SEMIFINAL – No . 2 Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN) vs. No. 3 Kyle SNYDER (USA)
Coming into the 2023 World Championships, Tazhudinov was a relatively unknown 20-year-old. The most fans knew about the 21-year-old was that he was a young guy trained by Sadulaev’s coach but left Russia to compete for Bahrain.

That all changed for Tazhudinov after his sub-three-minute quarterfinal routing of world and Olympic champion Kyle SNYDER (USA). The lengthy pupil of the Sadulaev’s School of Wrestling threw Snyder twice for four, using all four of the American’s shot attempts to score his 10 quick points.

Heading into Paris, there’s nothing more that Snyder wants more than revenge against Tazhudinov on his way to a potential third Olympic medal.

“I’m pumped about the bracket. It worked out great, in my opinion,” said Snyder in an interview with FloWrestling. “The third match of the day, that’s probably my best match. Once I start getting warm, I feel like I can wrestle forever.”

Round two of the Snyder vs. Tazhudinov rivalry will take on August 10 in the 97kg Olympic semifinals.

1. 60kg SEMIFINAL  –  No. 1 Zholaman SHARSHENBEKOV (KGZ) vs. No. 4 Kenichiro FUMITA (JPN)
The Sharshenbekov and Fumita gold-medal bout from the 2023 World Championships was voted as the 2023 Match of the Year by fans.

In their second career meeting, the pair of two-time world champions wowed the crowd from whistle to whistle, with Sharshebekov scoring the first four-pointer of the match five seconds after the referee blew the whistle.

The points continued to pile up throughout the match. The pair collectively scored 15 points in the opening 90 seconds. They ultimately scored 17 points in the six-minute bout, with Sharshenbekov taking ownership of the world title with an 11-6 victory.

Sharshenbekov and Fumita are scheduled to meet on August 5 in the 60kg semifinals.

Wrestling at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games starts August 5-11 and can be followed on www.uww.org.