Session 1 Recap: 59kg & 75kg
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The morning session of day one is in the books and it was even crazier than we expected for two highly competitive Greco weight classes.
Unfortunately for Americans, neither 59kg Jesse Thielke nor 75kg Andy Bisek will be wrestling for medals as both went 1-1 on the day.
Thielke lost 8-0 in the quarters to two-time Olympic silver medalist Rovshan Bayramov. The honey badger was lifted up three separate times in par terre and turned each time, but Team USA coach Matt Lindland challenged the final turn. It ended up costing Thielke the match, however, as the score went from 6-0 to an 8-0 final.
Surprisingly, Bisek lost 2-0 to Bozo Starcevic of Croatia in the quarters. Bisek got his turn on top first, but was unable to turn the Croatian. Starcevic capitalized on his opportunity though and got the only points of the match when he tipped Bisek on a gut wrench.
On the international side of things, a shocking run to the finals by Japan’s Shinobu Ota. He defeated reigning Olympic gold medalist Hamid Soryan (AGAIN), then took out three-time world medalist Almat Kebispayev in the second round. In the semis, he was trailing Bayramov but wound up getting a reversal from par terre to finish off an incredible pin.
He will be facing returning world champ Ismael Borrero Molina, who once again looked dominant in par terre. While not quite as impressive as his Vegas performance, no one was able to turn him.
At 75kg, we have a rematch of last year’s world finals between Roman Vlasov (RUS) and Mark Madsen (DEN). Vlasov had two very controversial matches that could have easily resulted in him losing.
The first was against Olympic champ Kim Hyeon-woo (KOR) in round one, when Hyeon-woo went reverse lift for what looked like a match-winning four point throw, only to see it be ruled a two for exposure. In the semis, Vlasov was choked out by Starcevic and flat on his back, but the ref stopped the match before a pin was called.