#WrestleLima

Pan-American U20 Championships 2025 Entries

By United World Wrestling Press

LIMA, Peru (July 7) -- The Pan-American U20 Championships begins in Lima, Peru from July 10 close to 200 wrestlers participating. All weight classes of Greco-Roman will be held on July 10, followed by all weight classes of Women's Wrestling on July 11 and all 10 weight classes of Freestyle on July 12.

For full schedule of the Pan-American U20 Championships, click here.

Note: The entries are preliminary and subject to change 72 hours before the respective draws of each style. For final entries and brackets, refer to UWW Arena.

Freestyle

57kg
Caio DUARTE  (BRA)
Javier TONITA (CAN)
Mario ACOSTA (ESA)
Irie JACKSON (JAM)
Ricardo PENA (MEX)
Jose ANDRADE (PAN)
Abel SANCHEZ (PER)
Ethan RIVERA (PUR)
Antonio MILLS (USA)

61kg
Luiz ANGELO (BRA)
Karson BROWN (CAN)
Ricardo GONZALEZ (CHI)
Angel YONG (ECU)
David MARTINEZ (MEX)
Sabdier PALACIOS (PAN)
Omar AYOUB (PUR)
Kyler LARKIN (USA)

65kg
Benjamin SOUZA (BRA)
Khalin RADEV (CAN)
Vicente CHACON (CHI)
Erick VERA (ECU)
Diego PERAZA  (MEX)
Tony MOCK (PAN)
Joao MONTESINOS (PER)
Yandro SOTO (PUR)
Luke STANICH (USA)

70kg
Kade BROWN (CAN)
Tristan FORSMAN (CRC)
Brandon HERNANDEZ (GUA)
Jazziel BALAM (MEX)
Masquiel CORDOBA (PAN)
Anthony MOLINA (PER)
Josuel MEDINA (PUR)
Jaxon JOY (USA)

74kg
Joao REIS (BRA)
Nicholas HOOPER (CAN)
Sixto GARCIA (ECU)
Kevin ALEMAN (ESA)
Diego HERNANDEZ (GUA)
Jorge GARCIA (MEX)
Victor SOTO (PUR)
William DENNY (USA)

79kg
Leandro ARAUJO (BRA)
Bryce ROONEY (CAN)
Santiago VALENZUELA (CHI)
Axel NAVA (MEX)
Dario CUBAS (PER)
Vincent ECHAVARRY (PUR)
William HENCKEL (USA)

86kg
Max FRANCA (BRA)
Rohit BAL (CAN)
Angel FLORES (MEX)
Bryan CAMPOS (PER)
Christopher SANCHEZ (PUR)
Adam WATERS (USA)

92kg
Michealjeet GREWAL (CAN)
Jean ZAMBRANO (ECU)
Rafael ABRAHAMS (PUR)
Connor MIRASOLA (USA)

97kg
Kyle SANTANA (BRA)
Tejvir DHINSA (CAN)
Angel RAMIREZ (MEX)
Sadath ORTEGA (PAN)
Justin RADEMACHER (USA)

125kg
Pedro FERNANDES (BRA)
Chanjot KANG (CAN)
Leonardo GUERRERO (MEX)
Cole MIRASOLA (USA)

Greco-Roman

55kg
Yuri LANDIM (BRA)
Jose CASTANEDA (COL)
Moises PERALTA (ECU)
Erick CHOC (GUA)
Luis HERNANDEZ (MEX)
Jose ANDRADE (PAN)
Abel SANCHEZ (PER)
Caleb NOBLE (USA)

60kg
Pedro DE SOUZA (BRA)
Augusto VARGAS (CHI)
Erick VERA (ECU)
Daniel GUEVARA (MEX)
Tony MOCK (PAN)
Juan CRISTALDO (PER)
Treygen MORIN (USA)

63kg
Clisman CARRACEDO (ECU)
Diego TERRIQUEZ (MEX)
Masquiel CORDOBA (PAN)
Landon DRURY (USA)

67kg
Lucas MARCIEL (BRA)
Sebastian BUSTAMANTE (CHI)
Abisai CAMACHO (MEX)
Joao MONTESINOS (PER)
Henry FIGUEROA (PUR)
Pierson MANVILLE (USA)

72kg
Enzo DOS ANJOS (BRA)
Hector HERNANDEZ (ECU)
Jorge GOMEZ (MEX)
Anthony MOLINA (PER)
Luis ROSA (PUR)
Jude RANDALL (USA)

77kg
Jonata DA SILVA (BRA)
Sixto GARCIA (ECU)
Josue ALVAREZ (GUA)
Mauro RESENDIZ (MEX)
Dario CUBAS (PER)
Vincent ECHAVARRY (PUR)
Leister BOWLING (USA)

82kg
Santiago VALENZUELA (CHI)
John SAENZ (GUA)
Jerson CHANTACA (MEX)
Maycki FLORES (PER)
Gavin RICKETTS (USA)

87kg
Kauan FERREIRA (BRA)
Jean ZAMBRANO (ECU)
Cristhoper PEREZ (GUA)
Cesar VELIZ (MEX)
Christopher SANCHEZ (PUR)
Nicholas NOSLER (USA)

97kg
Kaio MARTINS (BRA)
Dorian TREJO (MEX)
Sadath ORTEGA (PAN)
Mizael LLONTOP (PER)
Quinlan MORGAN (USA)

130kg
Joao SILVA (BRA)
Malcolm NOMEL (CHI)
Ibrack ANGULO (ECU)
Abraham AVALOS (MEX)
Shilo JONES (USA)

Women's Wrestling

50kg
Ana SALES (BRA)
Elizabeth CHAPMAN (CAN)
Vicky LEON (ECU)
Montserrat HERNANDEZ (MEX)
Genesis RAMIREZ (PUR)
Gabriele TEDESCO (USA)

53kg
Kailane ARAUJO (BRA)
Brooklyn GLASGOW (CAN)
Valeria ALVAREZ (ECU)
Ana FLORES (MEX)
Carolina SULCA (PER)
Mayangelie COLON (PUR)
Alexandra WAITSMAN (USA)

55kg
Abby WOLFF (CAN)
Maria GARCIA (MEX)
Tilly KAKUK (PUR)
Aspen BLASKO (USA)

57kg
Thaina ANIBAL (BRA)
Agnia KRAKOVSKA (CAN)
Karla GRUEZO (ECU)
Abril URBAN (MEX)
Cindell CASUSOL (PER)
Aneishka SANTOS (    PUR)
Carissa QURESHI (USA)

59kg
Ella FINDING (CAN)
Allison VALDEZ (GUA)
Cecilia BARRANCO (MEX)
Talita CABALLERO (PER)
Bella WILLIAMS (USA)

62kg
Stefany DOS SANTOS (BRA)
Annika FINES (CAN)
Leonela GRUEZO (ECU)
Neevis RODRIGUEZ (MEX)
Carina GIANGERUSO (PUR)
Lilly LUFT (USA)

65kg
Mackenzie CAYER (CAN)
Martina GODOY (CHI)
Valeria PEREZ (MEX)
Romina GARRO (PER)
Ruth JIMENEZ (PUR)
Cadence DIDUCH (USA)

68kg
Eduarda RODRIGUES (BRA)
Lene MCCRACKIN (CAN)
Elide CASTANON (MEX)
Leyla MALLQUI (PER)
Zoey LINTS (USA)

72kg
Kiki IDOWU (CAN)
Sofia DE LEON (MEX)
Keeley KEHRLI (USA)

76kg
Stefanni DA SILVA (BRA)
Rupinder JOHAL (CAN)
Edna JIMENEZ (MEX)
Aireka STEIGLER (USA)

#JapanWrestling

Paris Olympic Champ Sakurai Retires at Age 24

By Ken Marantz

TOKYO (April 4) -- Having never really regained the motivation that led her to achieve her ultimate goal of an Olympic gold, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) has decided to retire at the tender age of 24.

Sakurai, the women’s 57kg champion at the Paris Olympics, has announced that she will hang up her singlet and begin a second career nurturing a new generation of wrestlers and serving as a goodwill ambassador of sports for her native Kochi Prefecture in western Japan.

“After 21 continuous years, I feel I have reached the cutoff point of my wrestling career, so I have decided to retire,” Sakurai said at a press conference Friday at the Kochi Prefecture government office.

“I gave everything I had for the Olympics, and I was able to experience the feeling of achievement and the ultimate joy. It's difficult to win the Olympics without determination. I couldn't get back to the mindset I had before Paris. That is the biggest reason [for retiring].”

Known for her steely aggressiveness belying a quiet demeanor, and a wicked use of a 2-on-1 arm bar, Sakurai prefaced her triumph in Paris by winning three consecutive world titles, at 55kg in 2021 and back-to-back golds at 57kg in 2022 and 2023.

A U17 world champion in 2016, she won golds at the Asian Championships and Asian Games in 2022 and 2023, respectively, but suffered the second of just two career international losses at the 2024 Asian Championships, where she fell to Yongxian FENG (CHN) in the final.

She bounced back five months later for her crowning achievement in Paris, where she defeated 2016 Rio Olympic champion Helen MAROULIS (USA) 10-4 in the semifinals, then took the gold with a 6-0 victory over Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) in a rematch of the 2023 world final.

Making the win in Paris even more special was the fact that not only did Sakurai strike gold, but so did another Japanese wrestler who started the sport together with her at the kids wrestling club in Kochi run by her father.

Kotaro KIYOOKA (JPN), the freestyle 65kg champion in his Olympic debut, and Sakurai became the toast of Kochi, a rural prefecture fronting the Pacific on the island of Shikoku. They were paraded through the streets of the prefectural capital of Kochi City and hailed as heroes.

Like almost all of Japan’s medalists in Paris, the two took time off from the sport to run the gauntlet of TV interviews and variety shows, and just chill out in general. Sakurai, who returned to Kochi and started graduate studies in sport sciences at Kochi University, was particularly slow in returning to the mat.

In what would prove to be her first – and last – competition after Paris, she won the 57kg title at the second-tier Japan Women’s Open in October 2025, ostensibly to qualify for the Emperor’s Cup All-Japan Championships the following December. That would be the starting point for domestic qualifying for major global tournaments.

But Sakurai never made it to the Emperor’s Cup, and has now fully turned the corner on a new career.

“Over the past year, this decision was made after talking to many people, fretting about it, and thinking things through,” she said.

Sakurai said that as an extension of her father’s Kochi Wrestling Club, she wants to run a series of clinics outside of the city, mainly in her hometown of Konan just to the east of Kochi, to expose more children to wrestling and help it grow.

“Aside from wrestling, I'm learning so many things in graduate school right now, so I want to acquire a wide range of knowledge so that I can give back to Kochi Prefecture properly,” Sakurai said. “I think there will be various problems when I put things into practice, so I want to acquire solid knowledge so that I can solve those problems.”

Fans at this week’s Asian Championships in Bishkek will see another product of the Kochi Wrestling Club in action in Moe KIYOOKA (JPN), Kotaro’s younger sister and a former world champion who will be looking to add the 53kg gold to the one she won at 55kg in 2024. She and Sakurai were also teammates at Ikuei University.

And the name Sakurai might soon be appearing on the world stage again. Her younger sister, Tsukino SAKURAI (JPN), won the Asian U15 title last year.