Daton Fix (61kg) advances to the semifinals of the 2021 World Championships after going 3-0 with three technical falls in Session Onefrom Oslo, Norway. Photo courtesy of Richard Immel (@Richard_Immel).
Fresh off the heels of a historic showing for USA Wrestling at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan, the Red, White, and Blue look to carry that momentum into the Senior World Championships this week as session one gets underway Saturday, October 2, from Jordal Amfi in Oslo, Norway.
The 2021 Worlds return after a more than 700-day hiatus, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also marks the first time the Olympic Games and the World Championships have taken place in the same calandar year.
The competition will be held at Jordal Amfi in Oslo, Norway. The event starts with men’s freestyle competition October 2-5, women’s freestyle action October 4-7, and Greco-Roman wrestling October 7-10.
https://twitter.com/wrestling/status/1443833810869760005
In session One, Daton Fix (61kg), Kyle Dake (74kg), David Taylor (86kg), and Nick Gwiazdowski (125kg) took to the mats to begin their respective brackets.
It got off to a fantastic start for the United States as Fix, Dake, and Talor all advanced to the semifinals without surrendering a point. Gwizz was 1-1 on the day and awaits semifinals results to see if he will re-enter the tournament via repechage.
In Team USA's first match, Fix stormed to an 11-0 technical superiority decision over Giorgi Vangelo (Bulgaria), who took fifth at The 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Daton added a shot-clock point and his first takedown of the match roughly 90 seconds in. The Oklahoma State Cowboy led by the same score at the break. Daton poured it on in the second, adding two more takedowns and a huge four-pointer at the buzzer to cement the win and preserve the shutout victory, 11-0.
In match number two on the day, Daton made quick work of France’s Arman Norik Eloyan, getting the 10-0 tech in 0:55. With a quick takedown, two guts, and then two more turns, he got it done.
It was more of the same in the 61kg quarterfinals for Fix. Daton added a 10-0 tech of India’s Ravinder Ravinder. India was in on a shot, but Daton turned it into offense for himself to take the early 2-0 lead. Fix added a few turns for an early 8-0 lead. He added the final takedown to win it less than two minutes into the bout.
His 2021 Worlds has been as dominant as it gets with three techs in as many attempts.
https://twitter.com/FloWrestling/status/1444276067586527232
Kyle Dake and Nick Gwiazdowski got things rolling and Mat A and Mat B simultaneously in their openers. Gwizz got it down 8-3 over former Oregon State heavyweight All-American Amarveer Dhesi of Canada thanks to three takedowns and a go-behind for two more at the end.
Gwizz faced Iran’s 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Amir Zare next. Zare has gotten the better of Gwiazdowski previously. Unfortunately, the former NC State two-time NCAA champ struggled once again. Zare had two step-outs and two four-pointers in a minute and 10 seconds to advance. It was as dominant as it sounds.
If Zare makes the gold-medal match, Gwiazdowski will be brought back in to the bracket via repechage.
In Dake’s case, the 2020 Tokyo bronze medalist needed just a minute and 13 seconds to get the 11-0 in his first match. He used to a takedown, four turns, and a step-out to ice it over Moldova’s Vasile Diacon.
Next, the quarterfinals, Dake won a 5-0 decision over Turkey’s Fazli Eryilmaz. Dake also beat Eryilmaz last the pair wrestled, 3-1, at the 2020 Mateo Pellicone.
David Taylor proved why he’s a defending Olympic gold medalist, picking up a dominant 11-0 technical superiority over Slovakia’s Boris Makoev, a former World silver medalist from 2017 in Paris. Up 4-0 at the break, DT added seven in the second to end his Round of 16 matchup.
After that, DT was truly Magic in the quarterfinals, winning it by fall in just 29 seconds over Akhmed Aibuev of France. Taylor was out in front 8-0 at the time of the fall.
With that, Team USA has three in the semifinals, and that trio has not surrendered a point thus far. Quite an impressive first session for the Team USA men's freestylers!
For complete results, replays, and weight-by-weight brackets, head over to FloWrestling and Flo Arena.
Back to articles