#WrestleCoralville

China's Women's Wrestling World Cup team announced

Sunday, November 20, 2022 - 14:16 By Gary Abbott

Share this article

CORALVILLE, Iowa (November 20) --- China’s lineup for the Women’s Wrestling World Cup has been released.

The Freestyle and Women’s Wrestling World Cup will be held at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa, Dec. 10-11. It is the first time that freestyle and women’s wrestling will be held together side-by-side at the World Cup. 

The World Cup is the annual international dual meet championships, conducted by United World Wrestling. The top five teams in freestyle and the top five teams in women’s wrestling from the 2022 Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in September have confirmed their participation. There is also an All-World Team in each discipline, featuring the top available athlete from the World Championships in each weight class that were not from a nation which qualified for the World Cup.

The Chinese women’s wrestling World Cup team will feature many senior and age-group world medalists. 

There are five past senior world medalists, led by 2020 Olympic silver medalist Qianyu PANG (55kg), who also won world bronze medals in 2018 and 2019. A two-time world medalist is Feng ZHOU (68kg), who was a world silver medalist in 2015 and a world bronze medalist in 2018. Zhou was also a 2012 U20 world champion.

The other senior world medalists on the roster are 2022 world silver medalist Jia LONG (65kg), 2022 world bronze medalist Xiaojuan LUO (62kg) and 2017 world bronze medalist Yue HAN (68kg). Long was a 2020 Olympian, while Han won a 2016 U20 world silver medal.

Additional age-group World medalists are Zhang QI (59kg), who won silver medals at the 2017 U23 worlds and the 2018 U20 worlds, plus Jiang ZHU (50kg), a 2017 U23 world bronze medalist. In addition, 2019 World Military Games Juan WANG (76kg) will also wrestle.

China, which placed third at the 2022 World Championships in women’s wrestling, will be joined in the World Cup by World champion Japan, second place United States, fourth place Mongolia and fifth place Ukraine, in addition to the All-World Team. 

The rosters of the World Cup teams for the other nations will be announced over the next week by USA Wrestling.

Ticket packages for the 2022 Men’s and Women’s Wrestling World Cup are currently on sale. The seating capacity for Xtream Arena for the World Cup will be approximately 5,300. Ticket packages include a Gold package for $275, Silver package for $200 and All-Session tickets for $90.

A special Presentation of Teams and Team USA Meet & Greet will also be held on Friday, December 9 at 6:45 p.m. It is free and open to the public. 

Men’s and Women’s Freestyle World Cup tickets -> https://worldcupiowacity.com/tickets/

China Women’s Wrestling World Cup team
50 kg – Meng FAN 
50 kg - Jiang ZHU
53 kg – Li DENG
55 kg – Qianyu PANG
57 kg – Yongxin FENG
59 kg – Zhang QU
62 kg – Xinyuan SUN
62 kg – Xiaojuan LUO
65 kg – Jia LONG
68 kg – Feng ZHOU
68 kg – Yue Han
72 kg – Qiandegenchagan
76 kg – Juan Wang

#WrestleBelgrade

Japan puts four in World Championships finals

Tuesday, September 19, 2023 - 19:21 By Vinay Siwach

Share this article

BELGRADE, Serbia (September 19) -- A few legends of the sport have fallen at this World Championships in Belgrade and Adeline GRAY (USA) joined that unwanted list as Yuka KAGAMI (JPN) defeated her in the quarterfinals at 76kg.

Gray, coming back to wrestling after giving birth to twins, was looking to become a seven-time world champion which would have made her the United States' most successful wrestler. But Kagami ruined that plan by etching a 4-1 win after two takedowns against Gray's one point in the activity period.

Kagami then return to beat Milaimys MARIN (CUB) 5-1 and confirm her ticket to Paris Olympics as Japan will be sending the medalist from the World Championships directly to the 2024 Games.

"I was very excited and nervous for the Gray bout," Kagami said. "But I think I came prepared to win the match."

Kagami will take on Aiperi MEDET KYZY (KGZ) for the gold medal as the Kyrgyzstan wrestler defeated Tatiana RENTERIA (COL), another Pan-Am star, via fall in the other semifinal.

Yui SUSAKI (JPN)Yui SUSAKI (JPN) managed to win 4-2 against Ziqi FENG (CHN). (Photo: UWW / Kadir Caliskan)

While she did not lose, Yui SUSAKI (JPN) had a rare off day on the mat as her opponents managed to score three points on her in two bouts. The first was Alisson CARDOZO (ECU) who scored a stepout before Susaki punished her with a leg lace. Susaki pinned Emilia VUC (ROU) in the quarterfinals.

Ziqi FENG (CHN) pushed Susaki to the limits, even scoring exposure over Susaki, but the Tokyo Olympic champion hung on for a 4-2 win and an automatic ticket to Paris where she will look to defend her title.

Susaki, who failed to hold her tears back in an interview, said that it was a tough bout but she was prepared.

"The Chinese wrestler was strong in defense and power," Susaki said. "Before this tournament, I was in a difficult situation which I will talk about only after gold medal tournament."

In a repeat of last year's final, Susaki will take on Otgonjargal DOLGORJAV (MGL) who now has a 2-1 head-to-head record over Sarah HILDEBRANDT (USA).

Dolgorjav defeated Hildebrandt 7-5 in a rematch of last year's semifinal also won by Dolgorjav. Hildebrandt had won by technical superiority when the two met in the Ranking Series in Budapest.

Hildebrandt's loss also means that Mariya STADNIK (AZE), who lost to the USA wrestler, will have to travel to another Olympic Qualifiers to secure a trip to  Paris.

Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN)Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) beat Helen MAROULIS (USA) for the second straight year. (Photo: Amirreza Aliasgari)

In the third Olympic weight class of the day, Tsugumi SAKURAI (JPN) also confirmed her ticket to Paris after beating (and also spoiled her birthday) Rio Olympic champion Helen MAROULIS (USA) 6-0 in the semifinal. This was her second win over the American as Sakurai won the final last year over Maroulis.

But a tought test awaits her in the final as 59kg world champion Anastasia NICHITA (MDA) dropped to the Olympic weight and dominated her opponents.

She opened with a win over Olympic bronze medalist Evlina NIKOLOVA (BUL) and then went on to beat Odunayo ADEKUROYE (NGR) 10-0 in the quarterfinals. Elvira KAMALOGLU (TUR) was no match as Nichita once again won 10-0.

Nonoka OZAKI (JPN)Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) reached the 65kg final at the World Championships. (Photo: UWW / Amirreza Aliasgari)

In the only non-Olympic weight class in action on Tuesday, 62kg world champion Nonoka OZAKI (JPN) returned to the world finals, this year at 65kg. She beat Tatsiana PAULAVA 10-0 in what was her third win of the day, all without giving up a point.

Macey KILTY (USA) will try to stop her from winning the gold for a second straight year.