TOM Article

Adeline Gray of the USA celebrates after her semifinals win over Aiperi Medet Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan. Photo by John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com. Day one session two of wrestling at the the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, at Makuhari Messe Event Hall in Japan, was kind to Team USA grapplers Adeline Gray and Ildar Hafizov. In the semifinals, Gray narrowly won a close bout over two-time Asian Championships silver medalist, Aiperi Medet Kyzy (Kyrgyzstan), 3-2, earing the right to compete in the gold-medal match at 76 kg in Women's freestyle. Gray led 3-0 (2-0 at the break) after points for shot-clock, step-out, failed challenge. Medet Kyzy scored a single-leg takedown late and had a lace locked, but Gray didn't let her finish in the waning seconds. The failed challenge point was the deciding factor in the match. Gray will face Germany's Rotter Focken in the gold-medal bout Monday night. The match for gold will be a rematch of the 2019 World semifinal pairing, one that saw Gray emerge victorious 5-2. On the Men's Greco side, Luis Orta Sanchez (Cuba) used a big four-point throw to earn a dominant 11-0 technical fall over Viktor Ciobanu (Romania) in 60 kg semifinals, pulling Ildar Hafizov (USA) back into Monday's repechage. Hafizov will face Sergey Emelin of Russia tomorrow. Elsewhere, on a historical note, three-time Olympic champion and five-time World champion Mijian Lopez (Cuba) took out four-time World champion Riza Kayaalp (Turkey) in a tough semifinal via 2-0 decision. The pair have a intense history, colliding on the biggest stage at the Games previously. This matchup was a rematch of the 2016 Rio finals, which saw Mijian Lopez get gold. Read the official USA Wrestling release here.

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