Graphic courtesy of USA Wrestling.
As day number four (session seven of 13) of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games kicks off late Tuesday night, we have almost concluded all the Greco-Roman brackets and are nearly halfway through the women's freestyle brackets at this point. What makes day four (and session seven) significant, though, is that it marks the beginning of the men's freestyle brackets for Team USA and all other nations.
Tonight, we saw men's freestyle 57 kg (Thomas Gilman) and 86 kg (David Taylor), plus 57 kg (Helen Maroulis) in women's freestyle get their respective tournaments started. It went well.
For Maroulis and Taylor, their opening-round matches were similar. Both Americans poured it on in the second period to come away for dominant wins to advance to the quarterfinals. Maroulis, Team USA's first women's Olympic gold medalist, found herself down 3-0. Then, Maroulis trailed 4-2 at the break against 2019 World silver medalist and No. 4 Ningning Rong of China. But, the second period was a vastly different story of the American Rio Olympic gold medalist. She added three unanswered takedowns to get the 8-4 win.
In Taylor's case, he carried a 3-0 lead into the break. In the second period, though, Taylor took it to a different level. He tacked on two takedowns and then a four-pointer at the edge to finish the 11-0 tech over four-time World medalist Ali Shabanov of Belarus.
Thomas Gilman was the lone American to fall in the opening round. He had a tall task in front of him. That task was two-time defending World champion Zavur Uguev of Russia. Last December, Tokyo's No. 2 at 57 kg stormed to a World Cup gold medal by outscoring his competition 45-1. More remarkably, the Russian's his last 15 international appearances have yielded 14 medals (12 gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze.
Still, Gilman wasn't intimidated. Gilman took a 1-1 tie into the second period. In the second, things got interesting as both men showed their offense. First, Uguev registered a takedown. Gilman responded with a takedown and a step-out point of his own to take a 4-3 lead late in the match. With just 10 seconds remaining, there was a scramble and Uguev, secured a takedown in the final five seconds.
Thankfully, Uguev secured another takedown in the final 10 seconds of his quarterfinal match via inside trip in the last seconds to beat Uzbekistan's Abdullaev, 6-6 on criteria, to advance to the semifinals. With that, Gilman's repechage hopes are alive for now.
Maroulis and Taylor were just as dominant in their quarterfinal matches as they were in their Tokyo openers. Maroulis added an 8-0 against Tetyana Kit of Ukraine to make the semifinals. David Taylor made the semifinals himself thanks to a 12-2 tech of a familiar Big Ten wrestling foe in Myles Anime (San Marino). Taylor gave up the match's first takedown before scoring 12 unanswered to end it. The former Nittany Lion was technical and crisp with his attacks.
In the next round, Maroulis will face Risako Kawai of Japan in the semifinals in a battle of 2016 Olympic champions (but at different weights). Taylor, the 2018 World gold medalist, will battle No. 2, Deepak Punia of India, the 2019 World runner-up. Deepak Punia, just 22 years old, has Cadet and Junior World gold medals and a Senior World silver to his credit. He will be Taylor's biggest challenge in Tokyo thus far.
USA's Wrestling's official release from the action (Maroulis).
USA's Wrestling's official release from the action (Taylor and Gilman).
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