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World Championships: Five years after third, Kinjo earns shot at fourth gold

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 - 17:12 By Ken Marantz

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TIRANA, Albania (October 29) -- Two-time Olympic champion Risako KINJO (JPN) earned a shot at a fourth world title and first in five years, but Jia LONG (CHN) denied the powerful Japanese team a potential sweep of the women's golds.

Kinjo broke open a tight semifinal at 59kg against Svetlana LIPATOVA (AIN), scoring eight points in the second period for a 9-0 victory at the Non-Olympic Weight Categories World Championships on Tuesday in Tirana.

Japanese hopes of winning all four of the women's titles on Wednesday ended when Asian champion Long rode a second-period surge to an 11-1 victory over Miwa MORIKAWA (JPN) at 65kg, avenging a loss to the Japanese in the final at the 2022 World Championships.

The two other Japanese in action, Moe KIYOOKA (JPN) at 55kg and Ami ISHII (JPN) at 72kg, had little trouble advancing to the finals of their respective weight classes.

At 59kg, Kinjo earned just an activity point in the first period against Lipatova, but came out firing in the second, scoring a takedown off a low-ankle shot that she topped off with an exposure and gut wrench for a 7-0 lead. Kinjo then added a double-leg takedown.

Kinjo, who needed a dramatic last-second victory in a domestic playoff with 18-year-old Sakura ONISHI (JPN) to earn her ticket to Tirana, will be aiming to add to her consecutive world titles from 2017 to 2019 in Wednesday's final against veteran Tserenchimed SUKHEE (MGL).

Sukhee, a world champion in 2014 and silver medalist in 2015, scored a late takedown to clinch a 4-1 victory over MANSI (IND) in the other semifinal. Both Kinjo and Sukhee were bronze medalists this year at the Asian Championships, with the Mongolian's coming at 62kg.

Kinjo could have been expected to retire after failing to make Japan's team to Paris 2024 in a bid for an Olympic three-peat, but she has often said that she wants her daughter, now 2 1/2, to see
how good her mother was, not just hear about it.

The 30-somethings Kinjo and Lipatova's careers had crossed paths before, meeting in the semifinals at the 2018 World Championships. Kinjo won that one 10-0 en route to the second of her three consecutive gold medals.

Kiyooka, winner of both the world U23 and U20 golds in 2022, will be aiming to capture her first senior global title, after seeing her brother Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN) and Ikuei University teammates Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) and Sakura MOTOKI (JPN) all strike gold at the Paris Olympics.

She got the parade into the final started by scoring a takedown in each period for a 4-0 victory over reigning European champion Iryna KURACHKINA (AIN), who was the losing finalist to Kinjo in the 57kg final at the Tokyo Olympics.

In the final, Kiyooka will face world U20 champion Jin ZHANG (CHN), who advanced with a victory by fall over Areana VILLAESCUSA (USA). Zhang got in on a deep single for a takedown that led to two quick exposures, then levered the American over before securing the fall.

At 65kg, Morikawa was ahead 1-1 on criteria in the second period when Long used a counter lift for 2 points (originally ruled 4, but later changed on the challenge). She had Morikawa's arm locked and used that for three rolls. After the match was resumed following the challenge, Long ended it with 43 seconds left with another counter lift.

In the final, Long will face European silver medalist Kateryna ZELENYKH (ROU), who scored a second-period fall over Valeriia DONDUPOVA (AIN) after building up an 11-6 lead.

Morikawa and Long were meeting for the second time, but one round earlier than before. Morikawa edged the Chinese 2-0 in the final at the 2022 World Championships.

The two finalists at 62kg at the World U23 Championships held last week at the same venue, champion Iryna BONDAR (UKR) and runnerup Macey KILTY (USA), lost to Morikawa and Zelenykh, respectively.

Ishii, the 2022 world 68kg silver medalist, won a battle of newly crowned world U23 champions by overwhelming Kylie WELKER (USA) with a 12-1 technical fall that she concluded in the final seconds. Ishii had won the U23 68kg title, while Welker had triumphed at 72kg.

In the final, Ishii will face three-time former Asian champion Zhamila BAKBERGENOVA (KAZ), who will be looking to take home a first world gold after winning two silvers and a bronze over the past three years.

Bakbergenova prevailed in an entertaining 8-6 victory over Bolortungalag ZORIGT (MGL), scoring 4 points in a first-period scramble and clinching the win with a late takedown in the second.

Both Morikawa and Ishii lost out on the place at the Paris Olympics at 68kg to Nonoka OZAKI (JPN), who ended up with a bronze medal.

For Ishii, the pain of missing out on Paris was particularly sharp, as she had earned the quota for Japan by placing fifth at the 2023 World Championships, only to lose in the last second of a playoff against Ozaki.

Morikawa rebounded from her disappointment by making the team at 72kg to the 2023 worlds, from which she took home a bronze. Now she is back at her normal weight class, in which she won the world gold in 2022 and finished second in 2021.

Women's Wrestling Results

55kg (18 entries)
SF: Jin ZHANG (CHN) df. Areana VILLAESCUSA (USA) by Fall, 1:28 (8-0)
SF: Moe KIYOOKA (JPN) df. Iryna KURACHKINA (AIN), 4-0

59kg (22 entries)
SF: Tserenchimed SUKHEE (MGL) df. MANSI (IND), 4-1
SF: Risako KINJO (JPN) df. Svetlana LIPATOVA (AIN), 9-0

65kg (19 entries)
SF: Kateryna ZELENYKH (ROU) df. Valeriia DONDUPOVA (AIN) by Fall, 1:59 (11-6)
SF: Jia LONG (CHN) df. Miwa MORIKAWA (JPN) by TF, 11-1, 5:17

72kg (18 entries)
SF: Zhamila BAKBERGENOVA (KAZ) df. Bolortungalag ZORIGT (MGL), 8-6
SF: Ami ISHII (JPN) df. Kylie WELKER (USA) by TF, 12-1, 5:58

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U23 Worlds: Elor chases eighth world title in Tirana

Friday, October 20, 2023 - 10:57 By Vinay Siwach

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TIRANA, Albania (October 20) -- In the last 12 months, Amit ELOR (USA) has racked up five world titles. That number is likely to become six as she travels to Tirana, Albania for yet another World Championships, her third in three months.

At just 19 years of age, Elor is a two-time senior, three-time U20, a U17 and a U23 world champion. When she won the gold medal at the U23 World Championships last year, she became the first wrestler from the United States to win every World Championships. Now she will aim to repeat the golden three-peat she did last year, wrestling at 72kg, a weight class in which she is the defending champion.

Elor won the U20 Worlds in August and the senior one in September in Belgrade. So before flying to the Balkan country, Elor spent some time training in California, her home.

"I prepare the same way that I've treated the U20 Worlds and senior Worlds," Elor says. "The only difference is because I've already competed at two World Championships each month, I just am making sure to let my body rest and make sure that I'm ready.

"Sometimes when you have three big competitions in a row, your performance and how you feel physically, it starts to go down a little bit. That's something that my coaches told me as well, just to keep training, but also know that I'm ready because in some ways U20 and Senior were a huge preparation for this."

If those two tournaments are anything to go by, Elor should win the gold medal comfortably. In Amman, she did not give a point and won the final 11-0 over Bukrenaz SERT (TUR). While she did not maintain a clean slate in Belgrade, Elor never looked in any trouble of losing her title. She would go on to win her second world gold medal with an 8-2 win over Davaanasan ENKH AMAR (MGL).

In Tirana, Elor will face a few familiar opponents in Viktoryia RADZKOVA (AIN) who she defeated at the '21 U17 Worlds, silver medalist from last year's U23 competition Wiktoria CHOLUJ (POL), her opponents in the '22 U20 world final Anastassiya PANASSOVICH (KAZ) and Sert who is also coming to Tirana.

Apart from them, 72kg will see the experienced Marina SUROVTSEVA (AIN), Zaineb SGHAIER (TUN) and U20 European champ Iryna ZABLOTSKA (UKR) as some of the contenders.

"It doesn't blow me, just wrestling no matter who it is," Elor says about wrestling at a U23 competition after senior level. "I think that's a really good thing because you never underestimate your opponents. If you have somebody who is extremely good and has many titles under their name, that also won't scare you as much. I think that mindset really helps me. I just go into that competition telling myself to perform as best as I can."

Elor has always possessed that mindset. Her losses to boys in school would frustrate her and push her to improve. As a result, Elor has managed to make herself unbeatable. Internationally, Elor has suffered one loss -- a semifinal 3-1 loss to Naka HONOKA (JPN) at the U17 World Championships in 2019.

"I've been wrestling since a young age and I've taken other losses on top of that," she says. "Almost every single loss and motivation and your desire to keep going. That loss was very good for me."

No more losses after that. 15 bouts at different World Championships and Elor remains the wrestler who doesn't even let her opponents come close to beating her.

Her continued dominance on the mat may have made some miss the fact that Elor switched to a new coach this season. Until last season, she trained with coach Valentin KALIKA but the U20 World Championships in Amman saw 2004 Olympic silver medalist Sara MCMANN in her corner. Elor seemed to have battled the change but accepted it as well.

"Going out and competing after that change in this season has been really difficult," she says. "I learn more and learn different techniques from them, different mindsets and strategies. I think it's been really good for me. I'm very excited to have her there. She's just such a great role model for me, a really, really strong, tough person."

So far, the change with McMann has worked and she will be in Tirana with both Elor and McMann hoping for the gold and ending the season on a high before the Olympic year.

Elor will have to move to an Olympic weight class, 68kg or 76kg, as 72kg is not in the Olympics. She hints that 68kg may be a better fit for her. Back in her U17 days, Elor wrestled at 69kg but moved up with age. She insists that reducing weight is not her way. But come next year, she will have to make the hard decision.

"I'm taking it one step at a time. I'm going to evaluate myself and see how I feel as I start to work toward health, slowly and healthy way to decrease my weight a little bit," she says.