#WrestleAcapulco

Senior Pan-Am Championships Moved to Acapulco, Mexico

Tuesday, February 15, 2022 - 10:03 By United World Wrestling Press

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ACAPULCO, Mexico (February 15) -- The Senior Pan-American Championships 2022 will now be held in Acapulco, Mexico, instead of Santiago, Chile.

Despite the efforts of United World Wrestling and the Chilean Wrestling Federation, the event could not be held as originally scheduled in Santiago from May 5-8, 2022. The requirement decided by the Chilean Ministry of Health did not guarantee the participation of all countries.

Consequently, UWW was forced to move the competition to Acapulco. UWW would like to thank the Chilean Wrestling Federation for all the efforts put into organizing this event.

The Championships will be held according to the original program decided with seven weights of Greco-Roman beginning the event on May 5. The second day will see three remaining weights of Greco-Roman and four weights of women's wrestling. The remaining six weights of women's wrestling and two weights classes of freestyle wrestling will compete on Mat 7. Finally, the tournament will be closed out by the remaining eight freestyle weights on Sunday, May 8.

The deadline for the final entries is set for April 5, 2022.

Mexico has been a constant on the UWW calendar. They hosted the U17 Pan-Am Championships in 2019, U17 and U20 Pan-Am Championships in 2021, and are scheduled to host the U20 Pan-Am Championships this year apart from the reassigned senior Pan-Ams.

#WrestleSamokov

Japan defends U20 Worlds women's team title

Friday, August 22, 2025 - 23:31 By Vinay Siwach

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SAMOKOV, Bulgaria (August 22) -- Japan defended its Women's Wrestling team title at the World U20 Championships in Samokov, Bulgaria with two more gold medals on Friday.

The Women's Wrestling competition came to a close in Bulgaria with three weight classes, 50kg, 53kg and 72kg, and Japan won the first two gold medals while India won 72kg. India finished second in the team race with 140 points, 25 less than Japan which had 165 points.

Rinka OGAWA (JPN) won the 50kg gold medal with 9-3 win over three-time age-group world medalist Audrey JIMINEZ (USA) in the final. Ogawa gave up the first takedown but she hit a single-leg and turn to lead 4-2 at the break.

The second period was more scrappy but Ogawa gave up just a reversal while four points to win 8-3. The United States challenged at the end of match but there was no points for Jiminez and one more point to Ogawa's score for the lost challenge.

This was Jiminez's third loss to a Japanese wrestler in finals of World Championships. She lost to Umi ITO (JPN) in the World U20 and U23 finals in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Her one other loss came to Yanrong LI (USA) in 2023 at the World U20 Championships. She will now look to change her fortunes at the senior World Championships in Zagreb next month.

Japan's second gold cane with Natsumi MASUDA (JPN) who defeated European U20 champion Anastasiia POLSKA (UKR) in controlled 6-0 final. She scored three takedowns in six minutes for the win and earn herself the gold medal.

At 72kg, world U17 silver medalist last month, KAJAL (IND) managed to survive a fall attempt and a threating Yuqi LIU (CHN) in the final and win her first world U20 title to go with her world U17 gold from 2024.

Kajal used snapdowns to pressure Liu and score three takedowns and lead 6-0 but as the match progressed Liu hit a leg-attack and scored a takedown, and cradle Kajal who barely managed to get out off the lock and keep the 6-4 lead.

Both traded a takedown each in the remainder of the bout but Kajal held on for an 8-6 lead and win the gold medal.

RESULTS

50kg
GOLD: Rinka OGAWA (JPN) df. Audrey JIMENEZ (USA), 9-3

BRONZE: SHRUTI (IND) df. Josephine WRENSCH (GER), 6-0
BRONZE: Na HU (CHN) df. Diana RYSOVA (UKR), 7-5

53kg
GOLD: Natsumi MASUDA (JPN) df. Anastasiia POLSKA (UKR), 6-0

BRONZE: SAARIKA (IND) df. Ilona VALCHUK (POL), 11-0
BRONZE: Kseniya KOSTSENICH (UWW) df. Abigale COOPER (USA), 11-10

72kg
GOLD: KAJAL (IND) df. Yuqi LIU (CHN), 8-6

BRONZE: Kristina BRATCHIKOVA (UWW) df. Haticenur SARI (TUR), 17-12
BRONZE: Kaiyrkul SHARSHEBAEVA (KGZ) vs. Jasmine ROBINSON (USA), via inj. def.