Weekly FIVE!

Weekly FIVE! September 3, 2019

Tuesday, September 3, 2019 - 15:11 By Eric Olanowski

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Discussing Iran's new freestyle line up and Retherford downing Diakomihalis to claim USA's 65kg world team spot. Also looking at the most wide-open weight at the World Championships and when rosters are scheduled to be released. 

1. Iran’s New-Look Lineup 
Iran finalized their freestyle roster over the weekend and made two major unexpected updates to the top half of their lineup. 

Reza YAZADANI (IRI) and Parviz HADI (IRI) were entered at 97kg and 125kg respectively, but both suffered injuries during their final training cycle and will no longer compete in Kazakhstan. 

Yazdani, the two-time world champion, will be replaced by Ali Khalil SHABANIBENGAR (IRI) at 97kg. Shabanibengar was a runner-up at the Yasar Dogu, where he lost to Kyle SNYDER (USA) in the finals. 

Yadollah MOHEBI (IRI) will replace returning world bronze medalist Parviz Hadi at 125kg. This season, Mohebi won the Takhti Cup and Asian Championships and also finished in fifth place at the Yasar Dogu. 

Iran’s Freestyle Lineup 
57kg - Reza ATRINAGHARCHI
61kg - Behnam Eshagh EHSANPOOR
65kg - Amirmohammad Babak YAZDANICHERATI
70kg - Yones Aliakbar EMAMICHOGHAEI
74kg - Reza Alireza AFZALIPAEMAMI
79kg - Bahman Mohammad TEYMOURI
86kg - Hassan Aliazam YAZDANICHARATI
92kg - Alireza Mohammad KARIMIMACHIANI
97kg - Ali Khalil SHABANIBENGAR
125kg - Yadollah MOHEBI

2. Retherford Takes Down Diakomihalis, to Represent USA at 65kg 
Zain RETHERFORD (USA) downed Yianni DIAKOMIHALIS (USA), 2-1, and will represent the United States of America at 65kg at the 2019 World Championships. 

Retherford won the first Final X series a few months ago, but after an arbitrator negated the result from the second match, Retherford had the 1-0 series lead coming into Monday’s match. Retherford only needed to win one match to punch his ticket, while Diakomihalis needed to win two straight matches.

In their Monday matchup, all the action came in the first period. Retherford trailed 1-0 after a failed challenge but capitalized on a counter-offensive crotch lift and took the 2-1 lead into the second period. 

A scoreless final three minutes gave Retherford the victory he needed to punch his ticket to the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. 

This'll be his second trip to the World Championships. He also represented the United States at the 2017 World Championships in Paris, where he finished in 11th place. 

USA’s Freestyle World Team: 
57kg - Daton FIX 
61kg - Tyler GRAFF
65kg - Zain RETHERFORD
70kg - James GREEN 
74kg - Jordan BURROUGHS 
79kg - Kyle DAKE 
86kg - Pat DOWNEY 
92kg - J'den COX 
97kg - Kyle SNYDER 
125kg - Nick GWIAZDOWSKI

Takuto OTOGURO (JPN) returns to the World Championships with hopes of defending his 65kg title from a year ago. (Photo: Max Rose-Fyne)

3. The Most Wide-Open Weight: 65kg 
The most wide-open weight class for the World Championships is going to 65kg. There are three of the four returning world medalists who are currently entered, and an Olympic gold medalist and a three-time world champion.

The returning medalists, who finished with gold through bronze respectively, were Takuto OTOGURO (JPN), Bajrang PUNIA (IND), and Alejandro VALDES TOBIER (CUB). 

Although they failed to medal at last year's World Championships, two other wrestlers who have a shot at winning the 65kg world title are Haji ALIYEV (AZE) and Vladimer KHINCHEGASHVILI (GEO). 

Aliyev comes into the Nur-Sultan looking for his fourth world title since 2014. This season, the Azeri is undefeated and has won the European Championships and European Games. 

Khinchegashvili, the Rio Olympic champion, is another serious threat to win the world title at 65kg. He's coming off a European Games runner-up-finish where he fell to Aliyev in the gold-medal bout. 

Myles AMINE (SMR), a European Games bronze medalist, will be the first freestyle wrestler from San Marino to compete at the World Championships. He's entered at 86kg. (Photo: Gabor Martin)

4. World Lineup to be Released This Week
The deadline for teams to make updates to their world team entries ends tomorrow, September 4. After the deadline has passed, United World Wrestling will be releasing the entries through the week. Currently, the entry list is just shy of 1000 wrestlers from 100 different nations.

5. World Championships Countdown: 11 Days
The wait is almost over. We’re into the month of September, which means its officially World Championships month. The 2019 World Championships kick off on September 14 in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. 

This year’s World Championships will hold immense weight because the top-six wrestlers in each weight category will qualify their nation's spot for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. 

The schedule for this year’s Worlds is much different than that of the Budapest World Championships. Unlike last year, where Greco-Roman closed out the 2018 World Championships, Greco-Roman will instead kick things off this year -- beginning on September 14. Women’s wrestling will be sandwiched in between Greco-Roman and freestyle -- starting on September 17. Finally, freestyle will close out the World Championships, with the potential third match-up between the three-time world and Olympic champions Abdulrashid Sadualev and Kyle Snyder squaring off the 97kg gold medal. The pair have split the last two world titles at 97kg, with Snyder winning in Paris and Sadualev exacting revenge in Budapest by picking up the 70-second fall. 

Here is the World Championships SCHEDULE. 

Weekly FIVE! In Social Media
1. Big Move Monday -- Sadulaev A. (RUS) -- Senior Worlds 2015
2. #TBT Petriashvili Edges Akgul to Win First World Title
3. Follow The Beach Wrestling World Series Final This Week-end!!
4. Will @hasan_yazdani73 reclaim his crown? Let us know what you think!
5. Tickets for #WrestleNurSultan are On Sale!

#WrestleSamokov

Greco trained Sokolovska wins women's 76kg gold

Friday, August 22, 2025 - 09:07 By Vinay Siwach

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SAMOKOV, Bulgaria (August 21) -- "Have you ever seen her shoot for the legs? You haven’t!"

Vladimir SOKOLOVSKI has long been Greco-Roman coach in Ukraine. So when he put his daughters in wrestling, he trained them in Greco-Roman. Both Krystyna SOKOLOVSKA (UKR) and Nadiia SOKOLOVSKA (UKR) would perform upper body moves in competition and tried to complete the matches with fall.

In 2019, Krystyna won a bronze medal at the World U17 Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. Out of her four wins, two were via fall and one via technical superiority.

Six year's later and back in Bulgaria for the World U20 Championships, Sokolovski's younger daughter Nadiia went a step further and won the gold medal at 76kg in Samokov on Thursday.

Just like her father had taught her Sokolovska performed those arm-drags to perfection. She scored takedowns, big throws and falls. Out of her four wins to gold, three victories were via fall, including one in the final. It was only her quarterfinal against Elmira YASIN (TUR) that the Ukraine wrestler won 5-2.

"I won three out of four bouts by fall," Sokolovska said after the final. "I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to mess around with opponents for too long. I like to finish earlier, I always do things the way it’s comfortable for me. If I need to work on endurance, then I work on it. But if I get a chance, why not finish earlier?"

The final was no different story as Sokolovska finished the match in just 48 seconds, pinning former world U20 champion PRIYA (IND). The Ukraine wrestler first scored a takedown using arm-drag for two points. When Priya attacked after restart, Sokolovska did not let the Indian stand up and locked up a cradle as Priya sat in a squat position.

Sokolovska turned Priya on her back and then secured a fall to be crowned world champion.

"I still haven’t fully realized that I won," she said. "I had only competed once at the World U17 Championships and I placed fifth. This is my second World Championship and I really wanted to wrestle against the Asians and the Americans.

"I didn’t get the chance to wrestle an American, but I did get to wrestle an Asian -- just what I wanted."

Sokolovska is now a European and World U20 champion, with an unbeaten run in nine matches. Even at the European U20 Championships, she won five matches and three of them were via fall.

"I work only with the upper body in standing position. I have a strong upper body," she said.

But Sokolovska said that she will not rush herself to the senior level and plan her debut. Her father, who is also her coach, will devise a program that fits her training.

"I understood that it’s not always necessary to focus only on wrestling," she said. "You need to take psychological breaks. Play rugby or go swimming, take a mental break from the mat."

Momoko KITADE (JPN)Momoko KITADE (JPN) won the 65kg final against Margarita SALNAZARIAN (UWW). (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari)

In other weight classes, the United States, China and Japan won gold medals on day five of the tournament. Japan now has a firm grip on the Women's Wrestling team title.

After two golds medals on Thursday, Japan earned third one as Momoko KITADE (JPN) won the 65kg final. She held off Margarita SALNAZARIAN's (UWW) onslaught in the second period, winning the 65kg final, 9-5, to secure the gold medal.

The first period belonged to Kitade as her speed and strength were no match for Salnazarian who was down 6-0 at the break. But Kitade's conditioning gave way for Salnazarian's comeback. She scored two takedowns to cut the lead to 7-4. However, Kitade still held her positions and scored two stepouts and made the score 7-5.

Salnazarian pressured Kitade towards the zone but she was never able to score as Kitade turned her and scored two stepouts. She got 9-5 lead and defended it for the final 40 seconds.

Everest LEYDECKER (USA)Everest LEYDECKER (USA) celebrates after winning the 55kg gold medal. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Amirreza Aliasgari)

The U.S. won its first gold medal in Women's Wrestling at this World U20 Championships through Everest LEYDECKER (USA) who had a dominant run to gold. After winning her three bouts via technical superiority on Wednesday, Leydecker seemed in no trouble in the final.

She raced to an 8-0 lead against REENA (IND) in the final after scoring a takedown using a leg attack. She then cross ankled Reena and turned her three times for the lead. There was little action after that in the match as Leydecker kept her strong defense despite being called passive and cautioned for points as well. But Leydecker had enough lead to not be trouble by those warning.

At 62kg, YANGZHEN (CHN) made a dream international debut by winning the 62kg gold medal in a thrilling final against former world U17 champion Ruzanna MAMMADOVA (AZE). Down 6-0, Yangzhen managed to score six points in the second period and win the final, 6-6, on criteria.

Mammadova, who won World U17 gold in 2022, raced to a 6-0 lead with three counter exposure points and almost pinned Yangzhen. But in the second period, Yangzhen mounted the comeback, scoring a takedown from single leg and then got a turn using a strong gut-wrench.

With the clock ticking, Yangzhen needed one takedown for the win and she scored exactly that to lead 6-6 on criteria. Mammadova had one minute to reclaim the lead but Yangzhen managed to play the clock and win on criteria.

RESULTS

55kg
GOLD: Everest LEYDECKER (USA) df. REENA (IND), 10-2

BRONZE: So TSUTSUI (JPN) df. Tuba DEMIR (TUR), 5-3
BRONZE: Gerda TEREK (HUN) df. Alexandra VOICULESCU (ROU), 6-2

62kg
GOLD: YANGZHEN (CHN) df. Ruzanna MAMMADOVA (AZE), 6-6

BRONZE: Shirin TAKEMOTO (JPN) df. Neevis RODRIGUEZ (MEX), 9-7
BRONZE: Nigina SABIROVA (UZB) df. Busra EFE (TUR), 8-0

65kg
GOLD: Momoko KITADE (JPN) df. Margarita SALNAZARIAN (UWW), 9-5

BRONZE: Iryna BORYSIUK (UKR) df. Mouda HAMDOUN (EGY), 12-2
BRONZE: Beyza AKKUS (TUR) df. Daniella NUGENT (USA), 10-0

76kg
GOLD: Nadiia SOKOLOVSKA (UKR) df. PRIYA (IND), via fall

BRONZE: Diana TITOVA (UWW) df. Evelin UJHELJI (SRB), via inj. def.
BRONZE: Cancan LIU (CHN) df. Tuvshinjargal TARAV (MGL), 6-0