Image courtesy of Penn State Wrestling Twitter (@pennstateWREST).
With no Team USA Greco grapplers advancing to the medal round in session eight early Wednesday morning August 4, Team USA had two freestyle athletes in action in David Taylor (86 kg) and Helen Maroulis (57 kg), both of whom were looking for semifinal wins to clinch a berth in the Olympic finals.
Taylor was victorious, but Maroulis, unfortunately, was not.
David Taylor recorded his third straight technical superiority victory in as many matches. This time, the former Penn State Nittany Lion took out No. 2, Deepak Punia of India, a 2019 World runner-up. Not only did Taylor, a 2018 World champion himself, get the win in Tokyo, but he did so in utterly dominant fashion, pitching a shutout. The 10-0 tech came after a passivity point (1-0), a takedown (3-0) with two turns (7-0), another takedown (9-0), and a final step-out point to cap it off (10-0). The match ended before the start of the second period. He will face Iran’s No. 1 seed Yazdanicharati, a returning Olympic champion, winning gold at 74 kg at the 2016 Rio Games.
In 2017, the Iranian bumped up to 86 kg, where he has stayed put, claiming World titles in 2017 and 2019. Taylor was the reason Yazdanicharati took home silver at the 2018 World Championships in Budapest. Taylor earned the World gold, his first, with a convincing 11-6 win.
In the semifinal bout that was battle of returning Rio Olympic gold medalists in USA’s Helen Maroulis (53 kg gold in Rio) and Japan’s Risako Kawai (63 kg gold in Rio), Kawai got the 2-1 win to survive and advance to the 57 kg Olympic finals. All three points came via passivity. Maroulis will wrestle for a Tokyo bronze medal later this week.
While Thomas Gilman didn’t take to the mat this session, he did get brought back into the bracket after Zavur Ugaev (Russia) earned an 8-3 decision over Reza Atrinagharchi (Iran). Thus, Gilman is back into repechage tomorrow and trying to wrestle his way back to a Olympic bronze for Team USA.
Group One U.S. men’s freestyle results
57 kg – Thomas Gilman (State College, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC)
LOSS Zaur Uguev (Russia), 5-4
Repechage – Gulomjon Abdullaev (Uzbekistan)
86 kg – David Taylor (State College, Pa./Nittany Lion WC/Titan Mercury WC)
WIN Ali Shabanau (Belarus), tech. fall 11-0
WIN Myles Amine (San Marino), tech fall 12-2
WIN Deepak Punia (India), tech. fall 10-0
Gold Medal Finals – Vs. Hassan Yazdanicharati (Iran)
Group 1 men’s freestyle finals pairings
57 kg - Kumar Ravi (India) vs. Zavur Ugaev (Russia)
86 kg - Hassan Yazdanicharati (Iran) vs. David Taylor (USA)
Group 1 men’s freestyle semifinal results
57 kg
Kumar Ravi (India) pin Nurislam Sanayev (Kazakhstan), 4:21
Zavur Ugaev (Russia) dec. Reza Atrinagharchi (Iran), 8-3
86 kg
Hassan Yazdanicharati (Iran) dec. Artur Naifonov (Russia), 7-1
David Taylor (USA) tech. fall Deepak Punia (India), 10-0
USA’s Wrestling’s official release from the action (General).
USA’s Wrestling’s official release from the action (Taylor).
USA’s Wrestling’s official release from the action (Maroulis).
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