Asia Ray gets her hand raised after a victory at the Junior World Championships (Photo/Richard Immel)TAMPERE, Finland -- Two U.S. women will wrestle for bronze medals at the Junior World Championships on Thursday.
Asia Ray (44 kilograms) and Cameron Guerin (51 kilograms) both went 2-1 in the first session on Day 3 in Tampere, Finland, to reach the bronze-medal match.
Two other U.S. women, Gracie Figueroa (59 kilograms) and Alexandria Glaude (67 kilograms) fell in the quarterfinals and were not pulled back into repechage.
Ray advanced to the semifinals by getting falls over Esra Koc of Turkey and Beata Kosla of Poland. In the semifinals, Ray faced Asian champion Yumei Chen and fell 13-2. Chen nearly secured a fall against Ray at the end of the first period and took a 7-0 lead into the break. Ray came out strong in the second period, picking up an early takedown off a double leg to cut the deficit to five. Chen would respond a short time later with a takedown and exposure to end the match.
Cameron Guerin defeated Yeonseo Choi of Korea in her first match at the Junior World Championships (Photo/Richard Immel)Guerin cruised to a 10-0 technical fall over Yeonseo Choi of Korea in her first match, scoring four turns off high guts to end the match midway through the first period. She then faced returning Junior world champion Kseniia Nezgovorova of Russia in the quarterfinals and lost by fall. Guerin led 1-0 after the opening period, scoring a point off the shot clock. Nezgovorova scored a takedown early in the second period off an ankle pick before driving Guerin to her back to secure the fall.
Gracie Figueroa opened her tournament with a win over Leanco Stans of South Africa (Photo/Richard Immel)Figueroa, a Cadet world bronze medalist in 2016, started her tournament with a 10-0 technical fall over Leanco Stans of South Africa. She faced European bronze medalist Ilona Prokopevniuk of Ukraine in the quarterfinals, and jumped out to a 4-2 lead at the break, scoring two first-period takedowns. In the second period, Prokopevniuk scored a takedown off her shot and put Figueroa on her back to get the fall. Figueroa was eliminated from the competition when Prokopevniuk lost to Japan's Yuzuru Kumano in the semifinals.
Alexandria Glaude went 1-1 at the Junior World Championships (Photo/Richard Immel)Glaude started her day with a victory, beating Hyeonyeong Park of Korea 7-4 to reach the quarterfinals. She was then blanked 8-0 by Alexandra Anghel of Romania. Her competition officially came to a close when Anghel was pinned by two-time Cadet world champion Khanum Velieva of Russia in the semifinals.
The final round on Thursday is scheduled for 6 p.m. local time, 11 a.m. ET.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now