Pictured: Team USA's Forrest Molinari, who will wrestle in the bronze-medal match at the 2021 World Championships in Oslo, Norway, October 6. Photo by Justin Hoch / (@justinhoch)
Day four (session 8) inside Jordal Amfi Arena in Oslo, Norway, is in the books. With that, Team USA won three more World medals – two silvers and a bronze.
In men’s freestyle , the tournament finished its last two brackets with 79kg and 97kg, and crowned the Russia Wrestling Federation the 2021 World Championships team champs.
Like the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, yet another Snyder vs. Sadulaev showdown determined a team title at a major international event.
https://twitter.com/SpeyWrestle/status/1445422109312888839
Unfortunately, Sadulaev earned the 6-0 decision over Snyder. The win is Sadulaev’s third straight over the American. As a result, Russia won the unofficial team race 173 points to 168 points over the United States. Iran finished in third (162 points) and Georgia in fourth (68 points).
Elsewhere, in the women’s freestyle, Americans Jenna Burkert (55kg) and Kayla Miracle (62kg) won their first World medals – a bronze for Burkert and a silver for Miracle.
Three others on the women’s squad will compete for medals tomorrow. 2020 Olympian Sarah Hildebrandt (50kg) is going for her first World gold (second World medal), 2020 Olymoc silver medalist Adeline Gray is going for her sixth World gold (ninth World/Olympic medal), and Forrest Molinari is going for her first World medal in the bronze-medal match.
Inside the Medal-Round Bouts
Kyle Snyder, a three-time World/Olympic gold medalist (and now-seven-time World Olympic medalist), fought hard but came up short against the pound-for-pound best wrestler Abdulrashid Sadulaev, an seven-time World/Olympic gold medalist (now-eight-time World/Olympic medalist) medalist). In the defeat, Snyder gave up two passivity points, a takedown, and a gut wrench. Snyder never got close to Sadulaev’s leg. The for Ohio State buckeye lost 6-0. Still, he takes home a 2021World silver medal.
https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1445437487120191494
Jenna Burkert struggled in her World Championships opener but battled back strong. In the World bronze-medal match, the U.S. Army WCAP athlete jumped out to a commanding 5-0 lead late in the second period over India’s Pinki thanks to a pair of step-out points, a passivity point, and a takedown.
Burkert was taken down late in the second, but that was as close as the score would get. With a 5-2 win, Burkert is a 2021 World bronze medalist.
https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1445446463895457793
The Tokyo Olympic Games didn’t go the way Kayla Miracle had in mind. She lost a heart-breaking 3-2 decision in the Olympic opener and never made it back to the mat. What better way to rebound than earning your first World medal.
In the gold-medal match, miracle fell 7-1 to three-time Olympian and four-time World/Olympic medalist Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan.
Tynybekova held a narrow 1-0 lead into period two. However, in the second frame she added a pair of takedowns and a pair of step-outs for the 7-1 decision. Miracle got in on a leg a few times but was never able to finish. Still, she’s a 2021 World silver medalist.
https://twitter.com/TeamUSA/status/1445462659206311942
Inside the Semifinal Bouts
At 50kg, Sarah Hildebrandt did what she had done all tournament. That is, tech her opponent and do so with takedowns and takedown-to-lace sequences. This time, the tech came against Russia’s Nadezhda Sokolova, 12-1.
Despite giving up the first point of the match, Olympian Hildebrandt rattled off 12 straight points. Some scores were regular takedowns, and some were takedowns with a successful transition to a lace. While the Russian had clearly prepared for Hildebrandt’s lethal laces, it still wasn’t enough. Sarah is in the 50kg gold-medal match tomorrow.
At 65kg, after a nice 3-3 criteria win over France’s Koumba Larroque, a 2020 Olympian and two-time World medalist, Forrest ran into four-time age-group World medalist Miwa Morikawa of Japan, losing 6-2.
Trailing 2-0 at the start of period two, Molinari tallied a pair of step-outs, but she was also taken down twice in the final period. She’ll compete for bronze tomorrow afternoon.
At 76kg, Adeline gave up the first point against Egypt’s 2016 Olympian Samar Hamza, but then strung together 12 points of her own, including a huge four-pointer and some gut wrenches. Gray ended the match by fall with 26 seconds left in period one. This fall was Gray’s third pin in as many attempts. None of her matches made period two.
Adeline will wrestle for World gold medal number six tomorrow.
https://twitter.com/theopenmat/status/1445412047957659648
OTHER TOM COVERAGE FROM THE 2021 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Session 1 Recap here
Session 2 Recap here
Session 3 Recap here
Session 4 Recap here
Session 5 Recap here
Session 6 Recap here
Session 7 Recap here
USA WRESTLING RELEASES
https://twitter.com/USAWrestling/status/1445485607900250118
https://twitter.com/USAWrestling/status/1445501807271288832
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