Weekly FIVE!

Weekly FIVE! October 30, 2018

By Eric Olanowski

Reviewing the top highlights and history makers from the 2018 World Championships, and also the U23 World Championships which begin November 12 in Bucharest, Romania. 

1. Sadulaev Exacts Revenge on Snyder
The Russian Tank is back on top.

Olympic champion Abdulrashid SADULAEV (RUS) earned a first-period fall over returning world and Olympic champion Kyle SNYDER (USA) in the 97kg gold-medal match at the World Championships, exacting revenge from last year's gold-medal match in Paris. 

The highly-anticipated showdown, which was billed as Snyderlaev II, lasted just over a minute. Sadulaev fired off a single leg thirty-five seconds into the match. Snyder fought the position and quickly found himself in danger. Sadulaev kept Snyder on his back and secured the fall.

"Everybody knows Sadulaev is a very talented wrestler," Snyder said after the match. "He hit me in a good move and it worked out well for him tonight."

Sadulaev has now won three senior world titles to go along with an Olympic gold medal in Rio. He has suffered just one international loss since 2013. That loss came against Snyder at last year's World Championships.

Russia won the freestyle team title and crowned both freestyle gold medalists on Tuesday. The United States finished second in the team standings, while Georgia finished third.

2. Russia Sweeps Greco Gold Medals on Final Day of World Championships
Russia put the finishing touches on a world team title in Greco-Roman by sweeping the gold medals on the final day of the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. 

Aleksandr CHEKHIRKIN (77kg), Musa EVLOEV (97kg) and Sergey SEMENOV (130kg) came through to win gold medals in Greco-Roman for Russia on Sunday.

Chekhirkin captured his gold medal by defeating crowd favorite Tamas LORINCZ (HUN) 3-1 in the gold-medal match at 77kg. The Russian led 1-1 on criteria after the opening period and added to his lead in the second period off a passivity and then scored a late step out to win by two.

Evloev upgraded his world medal from silver to gold as he topped Kiril MILOV (BUL) 7-2 in the gold-medal match at 97kg.

The final Russian gold medal went to Sergey Semenov who dominated Adam COON (USA) 9-0 in the gold-medal match at 130kg. The 23-year-old Russian heavyweight used two four-point throws to cruise to the technical fall victory. Semenov was a gold medalist at the U23 World Championships last year and won two world gold medals as a junior. 

In addition to closing out the Greco-Roman championships with three day nine gold medals, Russia also used championships performances from Sergey EMELIN, Stepan MARYANYAN (RUS), and Artem SURKOV (RUS) to win the team title. 

Russia finished with 178 team points in Greco-Roman, 89 points ahead of runner-up Hungary (89). Turkey finished third in the team standings with 75 points.

3. Gray Dominates 2017 Champ Adar to Capture 4th World Title
After not competing in 2017, Adeline GRAY (USA) left no doubt that she is back. 

A day after beating 2016 Olympic champion Erica WIEBE (CAN) to reach the gold-medal match, Gray claimed her fourth gold medal at the World Championships with a dominant 13-1 technical fall victory over 2017 world champion Yasemin ADAR (TUR) in the gold-medal match at 76kg on Wednesday night in Budapest, Hungary. 

Adar scored first off the shot clock to take a 1-0 lead. But Gray came back with a takedown late in the first period before locking up her leg lace and turning Adar five times for the technical fall.

"I feel great," Gray said after her finals victory. "I can't believe it. I did such a good job mentally today. I'm so proud of myself, proud of my body, proud of my team. I'm so proud of everything that happened. This has been a wonderful two days."

Gray's previous world titles came in 2015, 2014 and 2012. 

Wiebe came back to win a bronze medal at 76kg, beating Epp MAE (EST) 4-0. Hiroe MINAGAWA SUZUKI (JPN) took the other bronze medal by forfeit.

4. Olli Makes History, Wins Finlands First Women's Wrestling Gold Medal 
In the gold-medal match at 65kg, Petra OLLI (FIN) held on to defeat Danielle LAPPAGE (CAN) 6-5 and claimed Finland's first women's wrestling world title after winning a silver medal back in 2015.

Lappage, a 2010 junior world champion, looked strong early, scoring first off the shot clock and adding a takedown to go up 3-0. Olli inched closer with a takedown late in the first period and then grabbed the lead on criteria less than a minute into the second period after scoring a point off a caution. 

Olli extended her lead to 5-3 midway through the second period with a takedown off a duckunder. Trailing by two with 10 seconds left, Lappage shot a single leg and secured a last-second takedown to make the score 5-5. However, a finger caution broke the tie and gave Olli a 6-5 victory.

Though Ollie was the only wrestler to win her countries first-ever gold medal at the 2018 World Championships, three other wrestlers made history for their nations in their respective styles.

They were 125kg freestyle runner-up DENG Zhiwei (CHN), and bronze medalists Taimuraz FRIEV NASKIDAEVA (ESP) (FS86kg) and Lianna de la Caridad MONTERO HERRERA (CUB) (WW55kg).



5.  U23 World Championships Begin November 12 
In less than two weeks, the Polyvalent Hall in Bucharest, Romania will host the 2018 U23 World Championships. Wrestling begins on Monday, November 12. 

Greco-Roman wrestling will kick off the championships, followed by women's wrestling, and will end with freestyle. 

Click here for the full schedule. 

Weekly FIVE! In Social Media 

1. OFF THE MAT - Short clip from behind the scenes at #budawrestle2018 with Yazdani and Taylor. Head to our stories to watch the full video. - #budawrestle2018 #uww

2. Yowlys Bonne Rodriguez - Becoming a World Champion // 'For me, he’s (Julio Mendieta Cuellarone) one of the best. Thanks to him I am here. He trusted me even when I didn’t trust myself. I almost wanted to quit. He was the one who said you have the talent, you can make it. You can be a champion!' #budawrestle2018

3. Thomas Bach (IOC President) and Nenad Lalovic (UWW President) congratulate Frank Staebler after winning his third World Title #budawrestle2018

4. Olympic champion @davorstefanek shares his #BudaWrestle2018 ?with his son, Matija.

5. What goes up, must come down!!! ?????? #budawrestle2018

#WrestleZagreb

Zagreb Open: Leydecker Makes Senior Debut with 53kg Gold

By Vinay Siwach

ZAGREB, Croatia (February 7) -- If Japan swept the gold medals in Women's Wrestling on day three of the Zagreb Open on Friday, day four on Saturday was a different story. Japan failed to win any gold medal as four different countries crowned champions.

U20 world champion Everest LEYDECKER (USA) threw her name in the mix at 53kg by winning gold in her first senior event. MANISHA (IND), Asian champion at 62kg, moved down to 57kg and managed to win gold in Zagreb.

At 72kg, Buse TOSUN (TUR) had a tough path but she managed find a way and win gold after beating Diksha MALIK (IND), 5-2, i the finals. The final gold of women's went to Alexandra ANGHEL (ROU) who pinned Tristan KELLY (USA), via fall (9-1)..

Leydecker, just 18 years old, secured a one-sided victory over Roksana ZASINA (POL) in the final. She managed to score three takedowns and one point for activity clock against Zasina.

This was the American's first-ever senior event internationally but she showed no signs of being overawed by the situation.

In the semifinals, Leydecker faced two-time world bronze medalist ANTIM (IND) and rallied on her one takedown to win the match 2-2 on criteria.

While the norm is to move up weight classes as wrestlers try and adjust into the Olympic weight, Manisha decided to move down from 62kg to 57kg. The decision could backfire but on Saturday, Manisha showed no mercy to her opponents and winning the gold medal at 57kg.

Facing Himeka TOKUHARA in the final, Manisha gave no chance to the Japanese in the final and two points in the first period and one in the second to close out a 3-0 blanking.

Alexandra ANGHEL (ROU) brought the best for the last as she pinned Tristan KELLY (USA) in the 76kg final and capture a gold medal for Romania. Two huge throws resulted in four-points and after the second throw, Anghel held Kelly on the mat to secure the fall and the gold medal.

Paris bronze medalist Buse TOSUN (TUR), wrestling at 72kg, captured the season-opening Ranking Series gold after comfortably beating Diksha MALIK (IND), 5-2, in the final.

RESULTS

53kg
GOLD:  Everest LEYDECKER (USA) df. Roksana ZASINA (POL), 7-0

BRONZE: Umi IMAI (JPN) df. Annika WENDLE (GER), via forfeit
BRONZE: ANTIM (IND) df. Anjali KACHHAWA (IND), 10-0

57kg
GOLD: MANISHA (IND) df. Himeka TOKUHARA (JPN), 3-0

BRONZE: Amanda MARTINEZ (USA) df. Elvira SULEYMAN (TUR), 11-0
BRONZE: Amory ANDRICH (GER) df. Tindra DALMYR (SWE), 4-2

72kg
GOLD: Buse TOSUN (TUR) df. Diksha MALIK (IND), 5-2

BRONZE: Zahra KARIMZADA (AZE) df. Mahiro YOSHITAKE (JPN), 4-1
BRONZE: Veronika VILK (CRO) df. Kristina BRATCHIKOVA (UWW), via inj. def.

76kg
GOLD: Alexandra ANGHEL (ROU) df. Tristan KELLY (USA), via fall (9-1)

BRONZE: Kendra DACHER (FRA) df. PRIYA (IND), via fall (6-0)
BRONZE: Yasuha MATSUYUKI (JPN) df. Shauna KUEBECK (CAN), 10-0

Greco-Roman

77kg
GOLD: Ali OSKOU (IRI) df. Zoltan LEVAI (HUN), 9-1

BRONZE: Robert FRITSCH (HUN) df. Temuri ORJONIKIDZE (GEO), 4-0
BRONZE: Abdullo ALIEV (UZB) df. Stoyan KUBATOV (BUL), 1-1

87kg
GOLD: Istvan TAKACS (HUN) df. Tamas LEVAI (HUN), 3-1

BRONZE: Erik SZILVASSY (HUN) df. Payton JACOBSON (USA), 2-1
BRONZE: Mukhammadkodir RASULOV (UZB) df. Matej MANDIC (CRO), 6-1