Jordan Burroughs defeated Bekzod Abdurahkmonov, avenging a loss from Rio (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)PARIS -- The American freestyle team advanced three wrestlers to gold-medal matches and leads the team race narrowly over Russia heading into tonight's final session at the World Championships in Paris.
James Green (70 kilograms), Jordan Burroughs (74 kilograms), and Kyle Snyder (97 kilograms) all reached the finals on Saturday.
Burroughs punched his ticket to the finals by avenging a loss in last summer's Olympic Games to Bekzod Abdurakhmonov of Uzbekistan. Down 3-2 at the break, Burroughs needed to make his move, and he did. A double leg takedown at the 5:06 giving him the lead he wouldn't surrender. He added a few more points to close out a 6-3 victory.
Burroughs had high praise for Abdurakhmonov.
"He's extremely tough," Burroughs said. "He's a world-class competitor. He beat me at the Olympic Games and it was a tech fall. So that was memorable for me. I really wanted to get this one. I'm happy to be back in the finals. This is the first time in seven years I'm in the finals against Russia."
Burroughs gave the American fans a scare in his very first match, giving up an early takedown and facing a 2-0 deficit against Ali Shabanau of Belarus before getting a point on a step out to close the gap to 2-1. He trailed 5-2 at the break, but stormed back to even the score at 5-5, but still trailed on criteria. It was the blast double with 17 seconds left that helped seal the victory.
In Burroughs' second match he fell behind 2-0, but after getting his head taped to cover a cut above his right eye, he went to work, scoring 12 unanswered points and winning by technical fall 12-2 over Sahsuki Takatani of Japan.
Burroughs seemed more relaxed in his quarterfinals match winning by technical fall 13-2 over Zelimkhan Khadjiev of France who had the hometown fans behind him.
James Green advanced to his first world finals at 70 kilograms (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)Green, a 2015 world bronze medalist, advanced to the finals by beating Yuhi Fujinami of Japan. He was methodical with his scoring and fought off last second shot attempts by Fujinami, including a step out that the Japanese coaches challenged as a takedown. Green held on for a 5-3 victory.
Green opened his tournament by dismantling another New Jersey native, Nestor Taffur (Colombia) 8-0, and then edged Zurabi Erbotsonashvili of Georgia 3-2 in the quarterfinals.
Green said it's the preparation the team does that helps him win close matches.
"At team camp that's what we train for," Green said. "We've been doing this so long we just have to come out there and wrestle."
Kyle Snyder was dominant in Saturday's first session (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)Snyder, the youngest American world champion and Olympic gold medalist, was dominant through the day, advancing to the finals at 97 kilograms. He will now face another Olympic champion, Russia's Abdulrashid Sadulaev, in the gold-medal match, which could potentially determine the team champion.
In his semifinal match, Snyder led 7-0 before making a small mistake and allowing Aslanbek Alborov of Azerbaijan capitalize on a takedown. A takedown by Snyder after the break, finished the scoring at 9-2.
Snyder started the day with a 10-0 technical fall against Mame Ibragimov of Kazakhstan, and
continued his dominance in his next match against Naoya Akaguma of Japan, again winning 10-0.
"I feel good," Snyder said. "Sometimes I think I was made for these situations against these types of guys."
Zain Retherford won his first match of the day over David Habat, an Ohio native who wrestled collegiately at Edinboro. He is now representing Slovakia. Retherford used his constant pressure to overwhelm Habat with a series of takedowns. The single leg attacks by Retherford led him to a 10-0 technical fall.
In his second match, Retherford found himself down 2-0 to Olympian Adam Batirov of Bahrain at the break. But Retherford found his single leg shot for a takedown to make the score 2-2 and give him the criteria lead. Shortly thereafter, Retherford was facing a 5-2 deficit with 5:28 left on the clock. Again, Retherford moved his opponent and earned a takedown closing the gap to 5-4.
Retherford was close to scoring a takedown at the buzzer, which would have given him the win, but it was ruled that time expired. The call was challenged and upheld, giving Batirov the 6-4 victory. Retherford was eliminated when Batirov dropped his next match.
Tonight's final session is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. local time, 1 p.m. ET.
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