The 2021 Cadet World Championship team (Photo courtesy of USA Wrestling)Friday, July 23rd, 2021, will go down as a historic day in American women's wrestling history. That was the day that the US Women's Cadet team won its first world championship. Seven of the ten team members will leave Budapest with a world medal. The team capped today's competition with three gold medals and a bronze.
Like the men's freestyle portion of the competition, the team race came down to the US and India. The tournament's final match, the 69kg gold medal bout, was responsible for determining the winner. 2019 Cadet World bronze medalist Amit Elor was representing the Americans against Yevheniia Siedykh (Ukraine). It took less than :30 for Elor to get on the scoreboard and, once she did, she never looked back. Late in the period, Elor whipped Siedykh over to her back for the winning takedown, but didn't settle for just a 10-0 tech; she pursued more and got the fall.
Also winning gold medals today for team USA were Erica Pastoriza (40 kg) and Katie Gomez (53 kg). Pastoriza did not surrender a point in her pre-finals tests and was just as good in the gold medal match. She needed only 1:34 to secure a fall over Romania's Alexandra Voiculescu.
Interestingly enough, Gomez's final match was her biggest blowout of the tournament. She teched Natalia Khramenkova (Russia) 10-0 for the world title. Her stiffest test of the competition came in the quarterfinals when she edged Antim (India) 5-4, after a last-second rally.
In addition, to the American gold medalists, Ava Ward also claimed a bronze medal today at 46 kg. Ward got the team off to a good start by racking up a fall in the repechage round, which locked up a date with Sviatlana Katenka (Belarus) for the bronze. Ward was never seriously threatened and rolled to an 8-1 win. The entire women's team went 7-0 during medal round matches at the tournament.
Not only did the US women put the finishing touches on their team title, but the Greco-Roman team got their tournament started, as well. The Greco team seemingly build off the other two teams' momentum and turned in a strong performance, too.
The Greco team placed two in the semifinals, Otto Black (48 kg) and Cory Land (55 kg), with Land clinching a medal and earning a berth in the world finals. The Alabama native systematically dismantled Zhantoro Mirzaliev (Kyrgyzstan) 5-0, which vaulted him into the gold medal match. Black had a fall and a 4-0 shutout before dropping a 5-5 heartbreaker to Servet Angl (Turkey) in the semis.
Cadet World Freestyle silver medalist Jim Mullen will have the opportunity to wrestle for another medal tomorrow. He fell in the opening round to Germany's Nikita Ovsjanikov, 7-2, but has been pulled into repechage since Ovsjanikov made the finals. He'll need to defeat Lyova Sargsyan (Armenia) to compete for the bronze medal.
Friday Cadet World Championship Results
Women's Freestyle
40 kg - Erica Pastoriza (USA)
(W) vs. Alexandra Voiculescu (Romania) Fall 1:34 - Gold Medal Match
46 kg - Ava Ward (USA)
(W) vs. Sviatlana Katenka (Belarus) 8-1 - Bronze Medal Match
53 kg - Katie Gomez (USA)
(W) vs. Natalia Khramenkova (Russia) 10-0 - Gold Medal Match
69 kg - Amit Elor (USA)
(W) vs. Yevheniia Siedykh (Ukraine) Fall 1:56 - Gold Medal Match
Greco-Roman
48 kg - Otto Black (USA)
(W) vs. Yuri Karapetyan (Armenia) Fall 3:36
(W) vs. Peter Totok (Hungary) 4-0
(L) vs. Servet Angl (Turkey) 5-5
Bronze Medal Opponent - Winner of Dzmitry Darahi (Belarus)/Faraim Mustafayev (Azerbaijan)
55 kg - Cory Land (USA)
(W) vs. Berati Inac (Turkey) 10-0
(W) vs. Adam Silverin (Sweden) 9-6
(W) vs. Zhantoro Mirzaliev (Kyrgyzstan) 4-0
65 kg - Jadon Skellenger (USA)
(W) vs. Rokas Cepauskas (Lithuania) Fall 3:07
(W) vs. Ashot Poghosyan (Bulgaria) 8-0
(L) vs. Ankit Gulia (India) 14-6
80 kg - Ryder Rogotzke (USA)
(W) vs. Mihael Salajec (Croatia) 8-0
(L) vs. Joju Samadov (Azerbaijan) 11-4
110 kg - Jim Mullen (USA)
(L) vs. Nikita Ovsjanikov (Germany) 7-2
Repechage Opponent - Lyova Sargsyan (Armenia)
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