#WrestleIstanbul

Wednesday's U17 World semifinals set

Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - 07:40 By Eric Olanowski

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ISTANBUL, Turkiye (August 2) --- The third day of wrestling at the 2023 U17 World Championships welcomes women's wrestling action at 43kg, 49kg, 57kg, 65kg and 73kg. 

 The morning session, which starts at 11:00 (local time), will run through the quarterfinals before taking our mid-day break. We'll return at 17:00 for the semifinals, then roll directly into the final set of Greco-Roman medal bouts at 18:00.

Wednesday's opening session will feature 19 medalists from this year's continental champions, including seven wrestlers who reached the top of the podium at the 2023 Asian, European, African or Pan-American Championships.

Everything you need to know:
📍Istanbul, Turkiye 🇹🇷
🗓️: July 31-August 6
Qualification: 11:00
🥇🥈🥉= 18:00
#️⃣: #WrestleIstanbul
🖥️: uww.org 
📱: UWW App

Here's a list of the reigning continental champs in action on Wednesday:
43kg  - Aleksandra BEREZOVSKAIA (AIN)
43kg -  Parveen PARVEEN (IND)
49kg -  Sviatlana KATENKA (AIN)
57kg  - Sabah KHAMIS (EGY)
57kg  - Neha NEHA (IND)
73kg  - Mouda HAMDOUN (EGY)
73kg -  Shiksha SHIKSHA (IND)

Wednesdays night's women's wrestling semifinals

43kg
Nilufar NURMUKHAMMADOVA (UZB) vs. Morgan Nicole TURNER (USA) 
Mona EZAKA (JPN) vs. Maria Louiza GKIKA (GRE) 

49kg
Rinka OGAWA (JPN) vs. Tana TIULIUSH (AIN) 
Sviatlana KATENKA (AIN) vs. Heather Marie CRULL (USA) 

57kg
Aziza KELDIBEKOVA (KGZ) vs. Eylem ENGIN (TUR) 
YeoJin MIN (KOR) vs. Sowaka UCHIDA (JPN) 

65kg
Chisato YOSHIDA (JPN) vs. Margarita SALNAZARIAN (AIN) 
Duygu GEN (TUR) vs. Maryia MAKARCHANKA (AIN) 

73kg
Aliaksandra KAZLOVA (AIN) vs. Piper Meredith FOWLER (USA) 
Lotta ENGLICH (GER) vs. Asaloy AMANGELDIEVA (UZB) 

Japanese score tracker: 68-10 (Record: 9-1 with five technical superiority wins and two falls)

13:30: That'll do it for our morning session. We'll see you back here at 17:00 for the women's wrestling semifinals, followed by the closing session of Greco-Roman action at 18:00.

13:26: Reigning U17 world champion Sowaka UCHIDA (JPN) punched her ticket to the 57kg semifinals with a hard-fought 7-4 win over 2023 U17 Asian champion Neha NEHA (IND).

13:02: Morgan Nicole TURNER (USA) at 43kg is someone to keep an eye on. She's picked up consecutive tech falls over Saadat GULIYEVA (AZE) and Alina MAZHAROUSKAYA (AIN). She awaits the winner of Yagmur KARABACAK (TUR) and Nilufar NURMUKHAMMADOVA (UZB).

12:59: Tack on two additional wins for Japan, as they improve to 7-1 in the morning session with back-to-back wins over Indian athletes.

12:42: Piper Meredith FOWLER (USA) takes out Ako UCHIYAMA (JPN), 6-0, at 73kg, handing Japan their first women's wrestling loss of the competition.

12:30: Despite falling to Elmira YASIN (TUR) in the opening round, Sarah RANDRIANANDRASANA (MAD) just became the first U17 wrestler--in women's wrestling, freestyle or Greco-Roman--to compete at the U17 World Championships.

12:23: Shiksha picked up two takedowns before planting Pupp on her back for the first-period fall. Next, she'll wrestle the winner of Sabina Nicoleta PETRACHE (ROU) and Margarita SALNAZARIAN (AIN).

12:05: Reigning U17 Asian gold medalist Shiksha SHIKSHA (IND) will wrestle last year's U15 European champion Viktoria PUPP (HUN) next on Mat C.

11:47: After the first three dominant Japanese performances, it looks like a score tracker is a must for the day. Thus far, they are 3-0 and have outscored their opponents 27-0--including two wins via technical superiority and one by fall.

11:36: The match between Ezaka and Berezovskaia was short-lived. The reigning U17 European champion was no match for the Japanese wrestlers, as Ezaka walked her way to a fall in 75 seconds after leading 6-0.

11:20: That does it for the repechage matches. We're rolling right into the qualification rounds for women's wrestling. The first star-studded match of the day that'll be up will take place on Mat B in three matches. Mona EZAKA (JPN), the reigning U17 world silver medalist, will square off against 2023 U17 European champion Aleksandra BEREZOVSKAIA (AIN).

11:00: Before we get into our women's wrestling matches, we'll start the morning off with Greco-Roman repechage matches to see who will compete in Wednesday night's medal matches.

10:45: We're 15 minutes from kicking off day three action in Istanbul.

#WrestleTirana

Breaking down freestyle battles at World Championships for Non-Olympic weights

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 - 09:44 By Vinay Siwach

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TIRANA, Albania (October 15) -- Six months ago, no one had the Sadulaev-Taylor-Ghasempour three-way battle for world title on their bingo card. But it is about to go down in Tirana.

The World Championships in non-Olympic weight classes is returning after eight years. Despite the fact that none of the Paris Olympic participants were allowed in the tournament, it still has a host of stars hoping to become world champions.

Abdulrashid SADULAEV (AIN), a two-time Olympic and five-time world champion, did not participate in the Paris Olympics and is going down a weight class to 92kg in a bid to earn his sixth world title. Three-time world champion David TAYLOR (USA) jumped from 86kg to 92kg in a bid to compete at the World Championships. He now gets a shot at Sadulaev. Two-time world champion at 92kg Kamran GHASEMPOUR (IRI), who has been moving up and down in weight classes, has somehow been made the challenger.

Ghasempour participated in the 97kg weight class in the Zagreb Open but lost to Kyle SNYDER (USA). He was in line for Iran's 86kg spot for Paris but later opted out of a trial against Hassan YAZDANI (IRI).

Sadulaev lost a bout for the second time in his career and first in six years when he lost to Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN) at the 2023 World Championships. Taylor lost to Aaron BROOKS (USA) in the U.S. Olympic trials and Ghasempour barely scraped through in the trials for the world team in Iran.

Yet, the three will be the favorite for the gold medal and it will only be a surprise if any of them miss out on the podium in Tirana.

Jordan BURROUGHS (USA)Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) is eyeing his seventh world title. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Six-time world champion Jordan BURROUGHS (USA) is also chasing history. If he wins, he will win his seventh world title, making him the most successful American wrestler at the World Championships. He missed out on competing at the 2023 World Championships but stormed back in 2024, winning the trial in the United States.

But his path to gold won't be an easy one. Two-time U23 world champion Magomed MAGOMAEV (AIN), former world silver medalist Avtandil KENTCHADZE (GEO), three-time world medalist Mohammad NOKHODI (IRI) and Asian champion Kota TAKAHASHI (JPN) are also in the fray.

Nokhodi and Burroughs have wrestled in two back-to-back World Championships finals with the latter winning both. But Burroughs suffered his first loss to an Iranian in 2022 when Ali SAVADKOUHI (IRI) defeated him at the World Cup and Nokhodi will draw confidence from there.

All the big names will be looking to hand Burroughs his first World Championships loss since 2019.

Vitali ARUJAU (USA)Vitali ARUJAU (USA) is the defending world champion at 61kg. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

Another Olympic champion eyeing a world title will be Zavur UGUEV (AIN) as he last won the second of two titles in 2019. Uguev won gold at the Tokyo Olympics at 57kg but finished fifth at the 2023 World Championships. He will be at 61kg in Tirana hoping to deny defending world champion Vitali ARUJAU (USA) a second world title.

Arujau won his first world gold medal in 2023 by beating Abasgadzhi MAGOMEDOV (AIN) in a tense final. He won the team trials in the U.S. to confirm his name for the World Championships in Tirana.

An interesting name entered is Azamat TUSKAEV (SRB). The former European champion will turn out for Serbia at 61kg but it is unlikely that he will be challenging for gold.

Masanosuke ONO (JPN), however, can be a big threat for the gold medal given his style and pace of wrestling. He rocked the competition at the U20 World Championships last month and won gold at 61kg. It will be interesting to see how he fares at his first senior World Championships.

Asian Championships silver medalist UDIT (IND) and Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ) have some good wins under their belts over the past two years and they would like to make a mark in Tirana.

Inalbek SHERIEV (AIN)Inalbek SHERIEV (AIN) and Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) wrestled in the U23 World Championships final last year. (Photo: United World Wrestling / Kadir Caliskan)

U23 world and European champion Inalbek SHERIEV (AIN) will be making his senior international debut at 70kg in Tirana and will be the favorite to win the gold medal. However, the field has other top contenders like Amirmohammad YAZDANI (IRI), Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) and James GREEN (USA) among others.

Yazdani lost the final at 70kg last year to Zain RETHERFORD (USA) but will look to make amends this year. He won the Asian Championships over Aoyagi in a high-scoring final. Yazdani's 13-9 win over Aoyagi was not convincing and the Japanese will look to change the result if the two meet in Tirana. Aoyagi was in the final against Sheriev but dropped the final 9-3. He finished eighth at the World Championships in 2023.

Former U20 world champion for Iran, Peiman BIABANI (CAN) will be turning out for Canada. He finished second at the Pan-Am Championships and the World Championships will be a big test for him. 2023 bronze medalist Ramazan RAMAZANOV (BUL) will look to change the color of his medal this year.