Weekly FIVE!

Weekly FIVE! May 29, 2018

By Eric Olanowski

Reviewing the 2018 Cadet Pan-American C'ships and the updated list of Youth Olympic Games qualifiers. Also taking a look at next weeks 2018 U23 European Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. 

1. The USA Caps off Pan-American C'ships with Nine Freestyle Gold Medals
The United States of America capped off the final day of competition at the 2018 Pan-American Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala with a 38-1 record and won nine of the possible ten gold medals.

More importantly, the quartet of American gold medals at YOG weights helped the United States punch four tickets to the 2018 Buenos Aires Games in October. Mexico, who won the fifth and final gold medal also locked up their spot for the 2018 Games.

Watch all freestyle matches from the 2018 Pan-American Championships.

Team Scores
GOLD - United States (245 points)
SILVER - Mexico (120 points)
BRONZE - Canada  (100 points)
Fourth - Guatemala (89 points)
Fifth - Dominican Republic  (74 points)

Axel ESQUIVEL (MEX) celebrates after defeating Paxton Liam CREESE (USA) in the 51kg Greco-Roman Pan-American finals. (Photo by Robbert Wijtman)

2. Mexico Qualifies Trio for Youth Olympic Games 
Mexico and the United States each had eight wrestlers vying for Greco-Roman gold medals at the 2018 Cadet Pan-American Championships. The winner of 45kg, 51kg, 60kg, 71kg, and 92kg qualified their nations spot for October’s Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Although USA wrestlers won five gold medals, none of those came at a Youth Olympic weight class. 

Mexico nabbed three gold medals against American opponents, with all three wins coming in weight categories where there was a Youth Olympic Games spot up for grabs. 

Igor ALVES DE QUEIROZ (BRA) and Jeremy GONZALEZ (ECU) claimed the two remaining YOG spots. 

Watch all Greco-Roman Matches from the 2018 Pan-American Championships.

Team Scores 
GOLD - United States (215 points) 
SILVER - Mexico (190 points) 
BRONZE - Guatemala (99 points) 
Fourth - Ecuador (61 points)
Fifth - Brazil (51 points) 

Tiare IKEI (USA), 49kg Cadet Pan-American champion. (Photo by Robert Wijtman)

3. USA Claims Six Women’s Wrestling Pan-Am Golds 
The United States capped off their impressive run at a Cadet Pan-American Championship team title with six individual championships, which included four births to the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina later this year. 

Venezuela and Cuba grabbed a pair of spots to the YOG, while Brazil and Mexico each had a solo wrestler punch their ticket to Buenos Aires.

Watch all women’s wrestling Matches from the 2018 Pan-American Championships.

TEAM SCORES
GOLD - United States (205 points) 
SILVER – Canada (131 points) 
BRONZE – Mexico (130 points) 
Fourth - Ecuador (80 points)
Fifth - Brazil (60 points) 

 Milaimys POTRILLE (CUB), 73kg Pan-American champion. (Photo by Robbert Wijtman)

4. Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers After the Cadet Asian, European and Pan-American C'ships.
The 2018 Youth Olympic Games will take place October 12-14 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For qualification purposes, the highest placing athlete from the cadet continental championships will qualify their nations spot for the 2018 Games in both freestyle and Greco-Roman. 

In women's wrestling, the top two athletes from the cadet continental championships will qualify their nations spot for the Buenos Aires Games. 

Qualifiers After the Cadet Asian, European and Pan-American Championships 
Freestyle 
48kg – RUS, USA, and UZB
55kg – JPN, UKR, and USA 
65kg – AZE, IRI, and USA
80kg – IRI, RUS, and USA
110kg – MEX, IRI, and RUS 

Greco-Roman 
45kg – BUL, ECU, and IRI 
51kg – GEO, JPN, and MEX 
60kg – ARM, MEX, and UZB
71kg – JPN, MEX, and RUS 
92kg – IRI, MEX, and RUS 

Women's Wrestling 
43kg – AZE, BLR, BRA, JPN, MGL, and USA
49kg – HUN, JPN, SWE, USA, UZB, and VEN
57kg – HUN, IND, JPN, MDA, USA, and VEN
65kg – CHN, CUB, HUN, JPN, MEX, and UKR
73kg – BLR, CUB, JPN, TUR, USA, and UZB

5. U23 European Championships Begin Next Monday, June 4 
The 2018 U23 European Championships kick off next Monday, June 4 in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Wrestlers between the ages of 19 and 23 years old will compete to qualify for the 2018 U23 World Championships which take place November 12-18 in Bucharest, Romania. 

EVENT SCHEDULE

Weekly FIVE! in Social Media 

1.Big Move Monday! @pascal.eisele @ringen_drb

2. Watch as South Africa’s Madi MPHO tells the @unitednationshumanrights about her journey from orphan to adulthood and how wrestling educated her on having empathy. Incredible story.

3.Erica Wiebe: “One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.”
.
Feeling like I’m ready to come out of the darkness soon.
I have a love/hate relationship with this part of the process. We push just past the point of breaking in the hopes we will become reborn, renewed, an evolution of who we once were. It’s magical. But it’s simultaneously physically, mentally, emotionally demanding. It’s why I love this sport.
@eweebz ?

4. How about this unusual wrestling singlets?? Как на счет таких необычных борцовских трико?? ?@pincancer #charity#wrestlingsinglet#wrestlers#gucci#louisvuitton#борцовскоетрико

5. Continuing series of wrestling "puzzles"? Продолжаем серию борцовских "головоломок"?
@wow_worldofwrestling #wrestling#coolpic#wrestlers#wow#sport#борцы#борьба#круто

#WrestleBudapest

Ranking Series: Tazhudinov wins gold; Sujeet, Suda champions in Budapest

By Vinay Siwach

BUDAPEST, Hungary (July 17) -- The final Ranking Series of the season begins Thursday in Budapest with seven Freestyle weight classes -- 57kg, 61kg, 65kg, 70kg, 79kg, 97kg and 125kg.

WATCH LIVE | LIVE MATCH ORDER | FREESTYLE PREVIEW

19:55: Bahrain gets a second gold medal as Shamil SHARIPOV (BRN) hangs on for a 5-3 win over Dzianis KHRAMIANKOU (UWW) in the 125kg final.

19:35: Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN) makes it another 11-0 victory and wins gold medal at 97kg. That is his fourth technical superiority win today. Since his Paris gold, Tazhudinov wrestled in Spain and won gold and now adds a second in two weeks.

19:10: Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO) is so good in his defense and he uses it to great effect and beats Magomet EVLOEV (TJK) 5-0 and takes the gold medal at 79kg at the Budapest Ranking Series.

18:35: Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) wins Ranking Series gold medal at 70kg after beating Arman ANDREASYAN (ARM) 8-0 in the final. Just a really strong performance overall as he gets ready for World Championships.

18:10: SUJEET (IND) gives India a Ranking Series gold medal in Freestyle after beating Ali RAHIMZADE (AZE). A bit of Bajrang PUNIA (IND) in Sujeet as he only gives up a activity point in the first period and upped the pace in the second scoring two takedowns and point for activity to win the gold medal.

17:45: Takara SUDA (JPN) with a buzzer-beating four-pointer in the 61kg final to win gold medal! Suda was down 3-1 against Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ) with 10 seconds remaining. Suda snaps Zhumashbek Uulu and then brings him down on the mat. Zhamashbek Uulu tries to defend but in clearly on his back and Suda has control. Suda is awarded a 3-3 criteria win.

Kyrgyzstan challenges but that is awarded four points to Suda and he wins 5-3

17:20: Luke LILLEDAHL (USA) is the champion at 57kg after he pulls off a takedown in the last 25 seconds against Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE). Both wrestlers exchanged activity points and Lilledahl led 1-1 on criteria but he scored a takedown to pull off a clear 3-1 victory.

17:00: The medal bouts in all weight classes begin now. The bronze medals will be held on Mat B and C while the gold-medal bout will be on Mat B.

Budapest Ranking Series 2025 Day 1 Semifinal Report

Olympic champions Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN), who wrestled at the Grand Prix of Spain last week in his first tournament since Paris Olympics, reached the 97kg final at the Budapest Ranking Series on Thursday.

Wrestling only in his third-ever Ranking Series, Tazhudinov posted three straight technical superiority wins and entered the final against Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL).

Opening his day with a 14-2 win, Tazhudinov manhandled Adlan VISKHANOV (FRA) and capitalized on the half-hearted attacks of the French wrestler. He hit a big double-leg attack for four points but Viskhanov got two points for exposure.

But that was only opening Tazhudinov allowed for the rest of the bout. Viskhanov tried a few leg attacks but Tazhudinov scored a takedown and two turns to be up 10-2 before an arm-bar attempt turned into takedown for his win.

Aliaksandr HUSHTYN (UWW) was next and Tazhudinov needed just a minute to beat him. In the semifinals, he took 1 minute and 48 seconds to see off Merab SULEIMANISHVILI (GEO), 10-0.

Baranowski had a contradictory run to the final as he won 6-6 on criteria against Jonathan AIELLO (USA) before a 7-5 victory over VICKY (IND) in the quarterfinals. He improved the score line to 7-3 in the semifinal against Juhwan SEO (KOR).

In other weight classes, world U20 champion Luke LILLEDAHL (USA) needed two last-second wins in quarterfinals and semifinals to book a place in the final. He defeated Niklas STECHELE (GER) 4-2 with a pushout in the last second and then handed RAHUL (IND) a 7-6 loss with a takedown in the final moments.

He will take on Islam BAZARGANOV (AZE) for the gold medal after the Azerbaijan wrestler beat Roberti DINGASHVILI (GEO), 5-2.

Asian champion at 61kg Takara SUDA (JPN) showed why he one of the medal threats at the World Championships in Zagreb. Suda wrestled two bouts before reaching the final and won them without much trouble. He began with a 12-2 win over Giorgi GONIASHVILI (GEO) and then posted a 4-3 win over Assylzhan YESSENGELDI (KAZ).

He will face Taiyrbek ZHUMASHBEK UULU (KGZ) in the final after the Kyrgyzstan beat his compatriot Bekzat ALMAZ UULU (KGZ), 3-2. A win against Suda in the final can be a huge confidence booster for the Kyrgyz wrestler.

At 65kg, SUJEET (IND) was a surprise finalist after he got the better of Paris Olympic medalist Islam DUDAEV (ALB), 11-0, and then beat Vazgen TEVANYAN (ARM), 6-1, in the semifinals.

He will take on Ali RAHIMZADE (AZE) in the final who defeated Alibeg ALIBEGOV (BRN), 9-2, in the other semifinal.

At 70kg, Yoshinosuke AOYAGI (JPN) and Arman ANDREASYAN (ARM) set up the final which will be a clash between two continental silver medalists. Aoyagi was in red-hot form in Budapest and outscored his opponents 28-3 before the final.

Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO), after his small quest at 86kg, returned to 79kg and made it to the final in Budapest after a 2-0 win over Bolat SAKAYEV (KAZ) in the semifinal. He will face Asian silver medalist Magomet EVLOEV (TJK) in the final. The Tajik stunned Georgios KOUGIOUMTSIDIS (GRE) in the semifinal using a cradle in just 21 seconds.

Kougioumtsidis dominated his matches till the semifinals but could not stop Evloev from finishing the cradle and had to make his way to the bronze-medal bout instead of gold.