2x U20 World Champion Amit Elor (photo courtesy of Kadir Caliskan/UWW)The women's freestyle portion of the U20 World Championships from Sofia, Bulgaria got off to a bit of a rocky start on Wednesday. Friday saw the conclusion of the women's competition and the squad finished strong with four of the five women in action finishing with medals.
As expected, leading the way for the women's team was Amit Elor at 72 kg. Last year, Elor captured gold medals at both the U17 and U20 World Championships. All that stood between her and a second U20 title was Kazakhstan's Anastassiya Panassovich. Elor made short work of Panassovich with a first-period tech 10-0. None of her four matches in Sofia lasted until the second period and she outscored the field 32-1, not including a fall in her first bout.
Amit's second U20 world title makes her only the third US woman to accomplish the feat and the first since Victoria Anthony in 2009 and 10. Elor has a chance to add more hardware to her collection this year as she has made the Senior and U23 World teams.
The other finalist on the day was Sofia Macaluso at 57 kg. Macaluso notched three falls on the way to the finals, where she'd meet Japan's Ruka Natami, a past U17 world champion. In what was mostly a tactical affair, Natami was able to keep the dangerous Macaluso under wraps and held a 2-1 lead for most of the second period. Natami tacked on four points as Macaluso was pushing the pace, attempting to take the lead, yet was countered to her back.
There was no such drama at 53 and 62 kg, as both Katie Gomez (53) and Adaugo Nwachukwu (62) earned bronze with little trouble. Gomez posted a 12-2 first-period tech on Egypt's Shaimaa Mohamed and Nwachukwu prevailed 10-0 against Kyrgyzstan's Bermet Nuridin Kyzy.
Reece Larremendy was also in action at 65 kg, but was stopped in her quest for the bronze by Tunisia's Khadija Jlassi, 9-2.
With the four medals on the day, combined with two from the first set of women, the United States finished the tournament with six medalists.
In addition to the women wrapping up their competition, the Greco-Roman team took the mat for the first team. Big man Aden Attao was the standout for the US team, garnering a pair of falls on his way to the semifinals. Attao was stopped in the semis by Ukraine's Mykhailo Vyshnyvetskyi, 10-0. The loss drops Attao into a bronze medal bout tomorrow and his opponent will be decided during the repechage session.
The only other Greco wrestler to pick up a win on the day was Oregon State's Kodiak Stephens at 87 kg. Stephens teched India's Surjett Singh, before falling by a point to Estonia's Robin Uspenski, 2-1. A match later Uspenski lost, which dashed any medal hopes for Stephens.
53 kg Women's Freestyle
Bronze Medal Match - Katie Gomez over Shaimaa Mohamed (Egypt) 12-2
57 kg Women's Freestyle
Gold Medal Match - Ruka Natami (Japan) over Sofia Macaluso 6-1
62 kg Women's Freestyle
Bronze Medal Match - Adaugo Nwachukwu over Bermet Nuridin Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan) 10-0
65 kg Women's Freestyle
Bronze Medal Match - Khadija Jlassi (Tunisia) over Reese Larramendy 9-2
72 kg Women's Freestyle
Gold Medal Match - Amit Elor vs. Anastassiya Panassovich (Kazakhstan) 10-0
55 kg Greco-Roman
Round of 16 - Nuristan Suiorkulov (Kyrgyzstan) over Jonathan Gurule 7-2
63 kg Greco-Roman
Round of 16 - Ziya Babashov (Azerbaijan) over Haiden Drury 8-0
77 kg Greco-Roman
Round of 16 - Yuksel Saricicek (Turkey) over Payton Jacobson 9-1
87 kg Greco-Roman
Qualification: Kodiak Stephens over Surjett Singh (India) 8-0
Round of 16: Robin Uspenski (Estonia) over Kodiak Stephens 2-1
130 kg Greco-Roman
Round of 16 - Aden Attao over Parvesh (India) Fall
Quarterfinals - Aden Attao over Adolf Bazso (Hungary) Fall
Semifinals - Mykhailo Vyshnyvetskyi (Ukraine) over Aden Attao 10-0
Bronze Medal Match - Aden Attao vs. Junho Park (South Korea)/Fekry Eissa (Egypt)
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