U.S. Sweeps into Freestyle Finals in Pan Am Games
Saturday, July 18, 2015 - 21:38 By William May
TORONTO, Canada (July 18) – Defending champions Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) and Jake HERBERT (USA) advanced to the finals of the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games on Saturday and will attempt to win gold medals for a second straight Games later Saturday evening.
Burroughs (74kg) and Herbert (86kg) will be joined in the gold medal matches at Mississauga Sports Center by teammates Kyle SNYDER (96kg) and three-time Pan American championships winner Zachery REY (125kg).
The U.S. quartet will try to match the four gold medals won in the same corresponding categories at the Guadalajara 2011 Games with Burroughs and Herbert leading the charge again.
Burroughs will square off South American Games champion Yoan BLANCO (ECU), who has won bronze medals at 66kg in Guadalajara and at 74kg at last year’s Pan Am championships.
In his opening bout of the day, Burroughs rolled up a technical fall against fellow 2014 world bronze medalist Livan LOPEZ (CUB), who will wrestle for a bronze medal on Saturday evening. Lopez was the 66kg gold medalist at the 2011 Games.
Herbert, meanwhile, will take his second shot at Reineris SALAS (CUB) this summer after a loss to the two-time world silver medalist at the Beat the Streets event in New York in May.
Herbert cruised into the gold medal match at 86kg with a pair of technical falls, while Salas was forced to go the full six minutes with decisions on points in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
At 96kg, Snyder, a 2013 junior world champion, also rides the momentum of a pair of technical falls into the final and will go up against Pan American championships bronze medal winner Arjun GILL (CAN).
Bringing the curtain down on the Pan Am Games’ wrestling competition will be Rey, who won his third Pan Am championships crown in Santiago in April, and Korey JARVIS (CAN), a bronze medal winner in April.
Gill and Jarvis were both gold medalists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Freestyle
74kg
GOLD: Yoan BLANCO (ECU) v Jordan BURROUGHS (USA)
BRONZE: Johnathan SCOTT (CRC) df. Cristian SARCO (VEN)
BRONZE: Livan LOPEZ (CUB) v Jevon BALFOUR (CAN)
86kg
GOLD: Reineris SALAS (CUB) v Jake HERBERT (USA)
BRONZE: Tamerlan TIGZIEV (CAN) v Pool AMBROCIO (PER)
BRONZE: Ricardo BAEZ (ARG) v Jaime ESPINAL (PUR)
97kg
GOLD: Kyle SNYDER (USA) v Arjun GILL (CAN)
BRONZE: Yuri MAIER (ARG) v Jose DIAZ (VEN)
BRONZE: Jesse RUIZ (MEX) v Marcos SANTOS (PUR)
125kg
GOLD: Korey JARVIS (CAN) v Zach REY (USA)
BRONZE: Edgardo LOPEZ (PUR) v Hugo DE OLIVEIRA (BRA
BRONZE: Rene SILVA (NCA) v Andres RAMOS (CUB)
Muhammadkabir NAZARZODA (TJK) won gold medal in the 62kg weight category. (Photo: United World Wrestling)
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