Good morning and Happy Fourth of July, folks. If you’re just getting up, here’s what you missed during the early session on Day 3 of the Cadet World Championships (the full brackets are linked below):
A.J. Ferrari handled a pair of Asian Cadet medalists to reach the bronze medal bout at 92 kilograms. He’s one of four Americans who will wrestle in today’s men’s freestyle medal round, which is scheduled to begin at noon ET after the conclusion of the women’s freestyle semifinals.
Ferrari started his day with an 8-2 win against Asian Cadet silver Yunus Gafurov of Kazakhstan and followed that up with an 8-1 victory against India’s Monu Dahiya, an Asian Cadet bronze medalist. The Texas native will wrestle Germany’s Johannes Mayer for bronze.
Even with Ferrari’s performance, the United States merely held serve with Iran in the team race during Wednesday’s first session. The Iranians, who entered the day with the lead, picked up two wins from Aliakbar Fazlikhalili, who reached the 60-kilogram bronze medal bout.
The first session of women’s freestyle produced a mixed bag of United States results. Emily Shilson reached the 43-kilogram semifinals with two dominant performances, but she was the only American to get through the first session unscathed.
Shilson kicked off her tournament with a fall against Romania’s Ana Maria Gabriela Cristescu and dismantled India’s Simran Simran 10-0 in the quarterfinals. The Minnesota native’s performance resembled her early-round work last September in Greece when she collected a Cadet World silver.
Shilson mowed down everybody in here path to the finals last year before falling to Japan’s Umi Ito in the gold medal bout. Shilson won’t have to go through a Japanese opponent this time to take home gold. Azerbaijan’s Shahana Nazarova handled Japan’s Anna Ueno 9-2 in the opening round at 43 kilograms. It was the only loss of the session for Japan.
The United States experienced a bumpier ride Wednesday morning. The Americans were down one wrestler right off the bat when Cheyenne Bowman forfeited her first bout of the day. Russia’s Valeriia Trifonova downed Tristan Kelly 12-0 in the first round at 73 kilograms.
Tiare Ikei and Kiana Pugh each notched a fall before suffering defeats in the quarterfinal round. Pugh spotted Ukraine’s Oksana Chudyk an 8-0 lead before falling 9-5 at 65 kilograms.
(Photo: Cadet World silver medalist Emily Shilson scored a fall and a technical superiority win in her two bouts Wednesday morning/Richard Immel)
Courtesy of Trackwrestling.com