Weekly FIVE! January 07, 2020

Monday, January 6, 2020 - 19:17 By Eric Olanowski

Discussing Akgul and Yazdani’s surgery and Taylor’s return to the mat after an 8-month layoff. Also looking at the #WrestleRome Matteo Pellicone entries, the 2019 Wrestlers of the Year and Susaki’s quest for Olympic gold.

1. Olympic Champs Akgul and Yazdani to Miss Time After Undergoing Surgery
Rio Olympic champions TAHA AKGUL (TUR) and Hassan YAZDANI (IRI) announced they would miss a good portion of the 2020 season after undergoing surgery over the past few weeks.

Akgul told United World Wrestling, “I fell on my shoulder during wrestling practice. I will be back as soon as possible…hopefully before the Olympics.” The Rio Olympic freestyle champion at 125kg had surgery on his left shoulder and expects to miss at least three months. “I will rest for two months. Then the physical therapy process will begin. I will start training in three months.”

Yazdani, the Rio Olympic champion (at 74kg) and two-time world champion at 86kg, underwent surgery on his right knee and will be sidelined for at least two months. The Iranian superstar told United World Wrestling, “It was a successful surgery. I am in a good situation now. I’ll start training on the mat in two months. I am in good spirits now. Lets see what happens in the future.”

2. Matteo Pellicone Entries Released
The first stop on the road to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games travels through Rome, Italy, for the first of two Ranking Series events, the Matteo Pellicone.

The three-day tournament kicks off January 15-18 in Ostia, a port city of ancient Rome, located 30km away from the city center.

As the entries sit, there are seven reigning world champions and 31 world medal holders from the 2019 World Championships that will wrestle in Rome. Freestyle boasts nine world medalist, Greco-Roman features four podium finishers from Nur-Sultan and women’s wrestlers rounds out the tournament with an astonishing 18 2019 world medalist.

World Champions That Are Registered:
FS 74kg - Kyle Douglas DAKE (USA) – two-time world champion at 79kg
WW 57kg - Linda MORAIS (CAN) – world champion at 59kg
WW 62kg - Inna TRAZHUKOVA (RUS) – world champion at 65kg
WW 62kg - Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ)
WW 69kg - Tamyra Mariama MENSAH (USA)
WW 76kg - Natalia VOROBEVA (RUS)
WW 76kg - Adeline Maria GRAY (USA)

Click HERE for the full list of entries for the Matteo Pellicone.

3. David Taylor Set to Return to Action
David TAYLOR (USA) announced on his social media channels that he’ll be returning after sitting out of competition for the last eight months.

In his post, Taylor said, “Dear World, I am back. I’ll be seeing you soon."

Taylor, a 2018 world champion at 86kg, was coming off an undefeated 2018 season, which culminated in gold-medal performances at the World Championships, Pan-American Championships, Ivan Yariguin and Yasar Dogu.

But in May, Taylor was dealt an unfortunate setback on his road to defending his world title.

It was at the Beat the Streets match against Drew FOSTER (USA) where Taylor went down 31 seconds into the match with an apparent right knee injury. In the opening sequence of the bout, Foster got to a low-level shot to the right leg of Taylor and came up through the middle. Foster peaked out the back door and isolated the right leg of Taylor. Foster, who was posted on his right hand, threw his left hip to the mat, which is when Taylor stopped wrestling and immediately grabbed his right knee. The reigning world champion tried to continue, but his right knee buckled the first time he put his body weight on it, and ultimately forced him to injury default out of the match.

4. Susaki Secures Spot on Japan’s Asian Olympic Qualifier Team; Otoguro Locks up Spot on Olympic Team
Yui SUSAKI (JPN) and Rei HIGUCHI (JPN) thought their hopes of gold medal glory at the Tokyo Olympic Games were all but gone, but their fate changed after winning the All Japan Championships in Tokyo a few weeks ago.

Susaki saw her Olympic dreams deteriorate in front of her own eyes after losing her world championship starting spot in a July 6 special wrestle-off against Yuki IRIE (JPN). Or, at least, she thought so. But after a disappointing showing in Nur-Sultan by Irie, Susaki was granted the one shot she needed to regain her starting spot. And she took full advantage of it.

Over the holiday break, Susaki took a significant step in recovering her quest to become an Olympic champion by exacting revenge on Irie in the finals of the All Japan Championships in Tokyo. The two-time world champion outlasted Irie in a tactical 2-1 battle and locked up her spot on Japan’s Asian Olympic Qualifier team. Now, she’ll have to travel to Xi’an, China, in March and finish top-two to cement Japan’s spot at the Olympic Games at 50kg.

Meanwhile, Rio Olympic runner-up Rei Higuchi will also be headed to Xi’an, after he dropped from 65kg to 57kg and upset 2017 world champion Yuki TAKAHASHI in a one-point barnburner (7-6) the 57kg gold-medal bout.

Also of note, Takuto OTOGURO cemented his spot on Japan’s Olympic squad at 65kg. The 2018 world champion, who secured Japan’s Olympic berth at 65kg with a fifth-place finish at this year’s World Championships, cruised to the 65kg crown with a 10-0 finals routing of Rinya NAKAMURA.

Click HERE for a full breakdown of the All-Japan Championships.

Japan’s Olympic Team:
Freestyle
65kg - Takuto OTOGURO

Women’s Wrestling
53kg - Mayu MUKAIDA
57kg - Risako KAWAI
62kg - Yukako KAWAI
76kg - Hiroe MINAGAWA

Greco-Roman
60kg - Kenichiro FUMITA

Japan's #WrestleXian Asian Olympic Qualifier Team
Freestyle
57kg - Rei HIGUCHI
86 kg - Sohsuke TAKATANI
97kg - Naoya AKAGUMA
125kg - Tetsuya TANAKA

Greco-Roman
67kg - Shogo TAKAHASHI
77kg - Shohei YABIKU
87kg - Masato SUMI
97kg - Yuta NARA
130kg - Arata SONODA

Women’s Wrestling
50kg - Yui SUSAKI

Japan's Olympic Spot Wrestle-Offs
FS 74kg - Shinkichi OKUI vs. Keisuke OTOGURO
WW 68kg - Sara DOSHO vs. Miwa MORIKAWA

5. United World Wrestling Names Chamizo, Mensah-Stock and Lorincz Wrestlers of the Year
United World Wrestling has announced its Wrestler of the Year Award winners for 2019: Frank CHAMIZO (ITA) in freestyle, Viktor LORINCZ (HUN) in Greco-Roman, and Tamyra MENSAH (USA) in women's wrestling.

Each of the three Wrestler of the Year Award winners claimed 30,000 CHF in prize money, while second-place finishers earned 20,000 CHF and third place winners won 10,000 CHF. United World Wrestling is committed to increasing financial incentives in a manner that is sustainable and is equal to all athletes.

The awards winners were selected based on their performances in this year's Ranking Series events, continental championships and the World Championships. Award winners did not have to be world champions, which was a change from last year.

Click HERE for the full release on the 2019 Wrestlers of the Year.

Freestyle
1. Frank CHAMIZO (ITA, 74kg), 106 points
2. J'den COX (USA, 92kg), 90 points
3. Geno PETRIASHVILI (GEO, 125kg), 88 points

Greco-Roman
1. Viktor LORINCZ (HUN, 87kg), 92 points
2. Shinobu OTA (JPN, 63kg), 88 points
3. Zhan BELENIUK (UKR, 87kg)/Musa EVLOEV (RUS, 97kg), 82 points (5,000 CHF each)

Women's Wrestling
1. Tamyra MENSAH (USA, 68kg), 108 points
2. Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ, 62kg), 94 points
3. Aline ROTTER FOCKEN (GER, 76kg), 87 points

Weekly FIVE! In Social Media

1. Big Move Monday -- Ciobanu V. (MDA) -- Senior Worlds 2019 #WrestleNursultan
2. #ScoreThat: How would you score this exchange for ? and ??
3. #TBT - Gray Grabs Third of Five World Titles
4. Sunday Smiles!
5. How loaded is 76kg for the #WrestleRome Matteo Pellicone?

#WrestleTirana

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

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

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) 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) 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) 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.

Weekly FIVE! January 07, 2020

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