Thomas Gilman won a silver medal at 57 kilograms (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)PARIS -- Thomas Gilman shined in his first World Championships, but fell short of gold on Friday night in Paris.
Gilman was shut out 6-0 in the gold-medal match at 57 kilograms against a fearless Yuki Takahashi of Japan in the finals.
Early in the match Takahashi drove Gilman out of bounds and Gilman was hit with a caution and two, giving Takahashi a 2-0 lead. Takahashi used a single leg takedown to build a 4-0 heading into the break.
Coming out after the break, Gilman got in on a few shot attempts, but it was thwarted by Takahashi's defense.
"When it comes down to it I have to be smarter," Gilman said. "I can only wrestle so hard against the best guys in the world, I have to wrestle smarter too."
Gilman's coach Terry Brands was satisfied with Gilman's overall performance in Paris.
"I think that he's put himself in the position to win the gold medal," Brands said. "You can't fault him for the way that he competes. I know he's not happy where he's at right now, but I know that this isn't going to deter him or derail him."
J'den Cox defeated past world champion Mihail Ganev of Bulgaria to win bronze at 86 kilograms (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)J'den Cox captured a bronze medal at 86 kilograms, doing so in dominant fashion. After a setback in the semifinals earlier in the day, Cox seemed to have found new motivation for the medal match. Maybe it was the tweet from David Taylor that allowed him to perform better in his bronze-medal match than he did earlier in the day.
Cox, a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist, scored his initial point when his opponent Mihail Ganev of Bulgaria, a world champion in 2010, was penalized on a shot clock violation.
After that it was all Cox. He used his quickness and agile movement to connect on a few low single takedowns. He built a comfortable 6-0 lead for himself and iced the match with a lovely low single to close out the match 8-0.
Cox was not happy with his overall performance throughout the day, but getting bronze is helpful and he's not making any excuses.
"A big, special thank you to David Taylor," Cox said. "Because without your critique, I don't know if I would have been up to it. I'm bringing home the bronze."
Nick Gwiazdowski with the other medalists at 125 kilograms (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Nick Gwiazdowski also rebounded from an earlier loss to bring home a bronze medal at 125 kilograms. In his bronze-medal match against Natsagsuren Zolboo of Mongolia.
He went up 1-0 after his opponent failed to score while on the shot clock. Gwiazdowski then went to work with his own offense that was firing all day. He scored a beautiful low single to go up 3-0 after being warned for passivity. He capped the scoring with another low single to go up 5-0, and then pumped his fist after the victory.
"It feels good leaving with something," Gwiazdowski said. "Good day on the mats, minus one match. I wanted to leave with something and obviously once that gold one is gone let's bring something back. Let's get a bronze."
After the first day of freestyle competition, USA leads the team race by two points over Russia.
USA freestyle coach Bill Zadick was pleased with the performance of the first four wrestlers competing in freestyle.
"I'm happy for those guys," Zadick said. "They did a great job. They deserve those medals. I like to focus on the athletes. The rest of that stuff takes care of itself."
The final day of the World Championships begins at 10 a.m. local time, 4 a.m. ET.
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