#Trnava2018

Russia Reels in Trio of Golds, Leads USA Heading into Final Day

Saturday, September 22, 2018 - 18:25 By Eric Olanowski

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TRNAVA, Slovakia (September 22) – The Russian national anthem played three times on the sixth day of wrestling at the 2018 Junior World Championships after Russia won a trio of gold medals, taking a 31 point lead over the United States into the final day of wrestling in Trnava, Slovakia. 

Akhmed IDRISOV (RUS) won Russia’s first gold medal of the night, scoring the 12-1 technical superiority victory over India’s 2018 junior Asian runner-up, Naveen NAVEEN in the 57kg gold-medal bout. 

Idrisov, the younger brother of 57kg Russian National champion, Magomedrasul IDRISOV (RUS), scored the bouts opening takedown, but only led 2-1 after giving up a reversal.

Midway through the opening period, there was a brief break in the action because Idrisov’s left ear busted wide open. The medical staff wrapped his head up, and wrestling continued. When action resumed, Idrisov extended his lead to 4-1 with a low ankle attack, coming out the back door, picking up two exposure points. After trading stepouts, Idrivsov again went back to his low-level attack, stretching his lead to 7-1.  

A front-headlock roll-through and a lost Indian challenge brought the score to 10-1, which is when Idrisov began celebrating, thinking the match was over, but he was only up by nine points. 

The first time junior world champion ended the match, scoring two points off a swing single, handing Russia their first championship of the night. 

At 65kg, Saiyn KAZYRYK (RUS) came from behind, grabbing a takedown with 10 seconds left to defeat Iran’s 2016 cadet world champion, Amirhossein MAGHSOUDI, 7-6. 

Kazyryk and Maghsoudi traded takedowns in the first period, but it was Maghsoudi who took the 2-2 lead on criteria into the second period. 

In a back and forth second period, Kazyryk grabbed the 4-2  lead with an exposure, but quickly gave up the reversal and remained in front, 4-3. Between a pair of Maghsoudi takedowns, Kazyryk scored two exposure and trailed 6-5 with 10 seconds left. Kazyryk seized the 7-6 lead with 10 seconds to go, winning Russia’s second gold medal of the day. 

The 97kg gold-medal bout only lasted 2:13, as Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (RUS), cruised past Zachery ELAM (USA), 11-0 to give Russia their third gold medal of the night.

 

The final two non-Russia gold medals went Khadzhimurad GADZHIYEV (AZE) and Hayato ISHIGURO (JPN). 

Khadzhimurad Gazhiyev stopped Russia from winning their third straight gold medal of the night, passing Razambek ZHAMALOV (RUS), 4-3 in the 70kg finals. Gadzhiyev trailed 3-0 and scored four unanswered points to win his first junior world gold medal. 

In the 79kg gold medal match that saw 21-points, Hayato ISHIGURO (JPN) stole the gold medal from last year’s cadet world champion, Aaron BROOKS (USA), scoring two-exposure points as time ran out to win 11-10. 

The last session of the 2018 Junior World Championships begin on Sunday night at 18:00.

RESULTS 

TEAM SCORES 
GOLD – Russia (105 points)
SILVER – United States (74 points)
BRONZE – Azerbaijan (46 points)
Fourth – Iran (44 points)
Fifth – Ukraine (44 points)

57kg
GOLD -Akhmed IDRISOV (RUS) df. Naveen NAVEEN (IND), 12-1 

BRONZE -Daton Duain FIX (USA) df. Bekbolot MYRZANAZAR UULU (KGZ), 10 - 0
BRONZE - Arsen HARUTYUNYAN (ARM) df. Hyeonsu CHO (KOR)

65kg 
GOLD - Saiyn KAZYRYK (RUS) df. Amirhossein Azim MAGHSOUDI (IRI), 8-7 

BRONZE - Nicolai GRAHMEZ (MDA) df. Fati VEJSELI (MKD), 15 - 5
BRONZE - Erik ARUSHANIAN (UKR) df. Kuanysh DUISENKUL (KAZ), 8-2 

70kg
GOLD -  Khadzhimurad GADZHIYEV (AZE) df. Razambek ZHAMALOV (RUS), 4-3  

BRONZE - Brady Gary BERGE (USA) df. Arman ANDREASYAN (ARM), 1 - 1
BRONZE - Vasile DIACON (MDA) df. Amirhossein Morteza Gholi KAVOUSI (IRI)

79kg          
GOLD - Hayato ISHIGURO (JPN) df. Aaron Marquel BROOKS (USA), 11-10 

BRONZE - Adlan BATAIEV (UKR) df. Aslanbek GVARAMIIA (RUS), 10 - 0
BRONZE - Orkhan ABASOV (AZE) df. Andrian GROSUL (MDA)

97kg
GOLD - Magomedkhan MAGOMEDOV (RUS) df. Zachery Samuel ELAM (USA), 11-0 

BRONZE - Zuriko URTASHVILI (GEO) df. Feyzullah AKTURK (TUR), 9 - 3
BRONZE - Serik BAKYTKHANOV (KAZ) df. Hyunsu HAN (KOR), 12-8 

#WrestleZagreb

Lee strikes gold as U.S., Iran shine at Zagreb Open

Thursday, February 6, 2025 - 01:15 By Vinay Siwach

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ZAGREB, Croatia (February 5) -- Spencer LEE (USA) did not compete internationally, for circumstances beyond his control, for eight years after winning his U20 world title in 2016. But in a year since he came back in February 2024, Lee has competed in six tournaments in less than a year.

Lee competed at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix in January and won gold. Two weeks later he won the Zagreb Open gold medal at 57kg on Wednesday, marking his debut at a Ranking Series event.

The Paris Olympic silver medalist led a strong performance of the wrestlers from United States as they won two gold medals as six weight classes concluded on day one of the Zagreb Open at Arena Zagreb.

Lee did not look as dominant as he did in Paris before the final but still managed to pull out a good defensive game and win the gold medal with rather ease.

In the final, Lee defeated Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE), 6-2, after a similar win over Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX) in the semifinals. He opened the day with an 11-0 drubbing of Luka GVINJILIA (GEO).

"It's good to get competition right now," Lee said. "[It] showed that I'm really not ready yet."

Though Lee was not convinced about his readiness, his coach Dan DENNIS kept pushing Lee and reminded him of the progress he is making bout after bout.

"I think it [progress] comes from being more successful early and then I was in on three shots, kicked out of all three of them," he said. "He's (Dan Dennis) just saying that you just kind of kept progressing. You even got taken down, good counter from him, got to keep wrestling, keep moving."

In the final, Lee scored two takedowns, first one a double-leg and second a counter, as his scoring actions to beat Bazarganov, a bronze medalist at the European Championships last year.

The win takes second-ranked Lee to 43000 ranking points, same as top ranked Rei HIGUCHI (JPN), the gold medalist from Paris Olympics. If Lee can finish top eight at any other Ranking Series or Pan-Am Championships, he will move to the top. However, Lee was not sure if he will be in action internationally before the World Championships.

"I think that ranking tournaments are awesome because good guys come," he said. "The points are obviously a nice bonus to that just because you can get seeded in the bracket. I love competing. Obviously I need more of it. So maybe. This tournament was tough. So good for me."

Zahid VALENCIA (USA)Zahid VALENCIA (USA) won the 86kg gold medal in Zagreb. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Zahid VALENCIA (USA) was the second gold medalist for the U.S. as he won gold medal at 86kg after beating Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0, in the final. Valencia was good with his counters and after building a 4-0 lead at the break, he scored two more takedown in the second period to win the gold medal.

The two bronze medals at this weight class went to Nathan JACKSON (USA) and Trent HIDLAY (USA), making sure all three U.S. wrestlers finish on the podium at the weight class.

Ahmad JAVAN (IRI)Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) defeated Ibrahim KHARI (IRI) 10-0 in the 61kg final. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kostadin Andonov)

Iran wins 2 golds

Iran also won two gold medals but the tournament left it with more questions than answers for the Asian Championships team.

At 61kg, Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) defeated Ebrahim KHARI (IRI) 10-0 to confirm his spot for the Asian Championships. Khari, who won silver at the U20 World Championships last year, failed to give Javan a fight in the final.

Prior to the final, Javan defeated Nashon GARRETT (USA) 7-2 in the quarterfinals and Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) 9-3 in the semifinals.

Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI)Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) defeated Joseph MC KENNA (USA) 8-6 in the 65kg final. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) undoubtedly gave Iran its biggest win of the day as he came back to beat Joseph MC KENNA (USA) 8-6 in the 65kg final.

McKenna got the first two takedowns to lead 4-0 before Ebrahim answered with his own to lead 4-4 at the break. Ebrahim began the second period with another takedown to go ahead 6-4 but with less than a minute to go, McKenna hit ankle pick and transitioned into a leg-attack. He scored a takedown to lead 6-6 on criteria.

In the dying seconds of the bout, Ebrahim  tried a front headpinch but McKenna defended it as he had Ebrahim's one leg locked. However, the Iranian managed to get his leg out of McKenna's hands, he tried to circle back and complete a takedown but McKenna held his knee pad which was penalized as one point, giving the win to Ebrahim 7-6.

The United States challenged that call but it remained and McKenna was docked one more point for lost challenge, making the score 8-6.

Both Iran and the U.S. had two silver medalists as well after Sina KHALILI (IRI) lost the final at 70kg and David CARR (USA) dropped the final at 74kg.

Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE), a former U20 world champion, gave no chance to Sina KHALILI (IRI) in the final and shut him down for a 12-1 win victory.

The weight class also had Paris Olympian and 2023 world champion Iszmail MUSZUKAJEV (HUN) who was stunned in the first bout of the day by Jarrett JACKQUES (USA) who scored a takedown in his 3-2 win Muszukajev.

Carr ran into three-time world medalist Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) in the final and finished with a silver medal at 74kg.

Salkazanov scored a takedown on each side of the break to complete a 4-0 win.

RESULTS

57kg
GOLD: Spencer LEE (USA) df. Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE), 6-2

BRONZE: Roman BRAVO YOUNG (MEX) df. Luka GVINJILIA (GEO), 11-2 
BRONZE: Azamat TUSKAEV (SRB) df. Ahora KHATERI (IRI), 11-0

61kg
GOLD: Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) df. Ebrahim KHARI (IRI), 10-0

BRONZE: Nahshon GARRETT (USA) df. Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO), 16-11
BRONZE: Nuraddin NOVRUZOV (AZE) df. Reza MOMENI (IRI), 8-4

65kg
GOLD: Abbas EBRAHIM (IRI) df. Joseph MC KENNA (USA), 8-6

BRONZE: Khamzat ARSAMERZOUEV (FRA) df. Erik ARUSHANIAN (UKR), 2-2
BRONZE: Ali RAHIMZADA (AZE) df. Goga OTINASHVILI (GEO), 6-0

70kg
GOLD: Kanan HEYBATOV (AZE) df. Sina KHALILI (IRI), 12-1

BRONZE: Austin GOMEZ (MEX) df. Ebrahim ELAHI (IRI), 9-3
BRONZE: Vasile DIACON (MDA) df. James GREEN (USA), via inj. def.

74kg
GOLD: Tajmuraz SALKAZANOV (SVK) df. David CARR (USA), 4-0

BRONZE: Murad KURAMAGOMEDOV (HUN) df. Kamil RYBICKI (POL), 10-0
BRONZE: Giorgi ELBAKIDZE (GEO) df. Aghanazar NOVRUZOV (AZE), 3-2

86kg
GOLD: Zahid VALENCIA (USA) df. Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE), 8-0

BRONZE: Nathan JACKSON (USA) df. Matthew FINESILVER (ISR), 12-2
BRONZE: Trent HIDLAY (USA) df. Tariel GAPHRINDASHVILI (GEO), 10-4