America had an up and down day in wrestling motion on Thursday with one athlete transferring onto a gold medal match, however two extra falling within the semifinals.
Former Iowa standout Spencer Lee continued his run at 57kg with one other dominant efficiency as he shut down Gulomjon Abdullaev from Uzbekistan with a 14-4 win by technical superiority. Whereas accidents stopped him from even making an attempt to make the 2020 Olympic staff, Lee got here storming again along with his displaying in Paris.
On Friday, Lee faces Rei Higuchi from Japan, who additionally gained his match in lopsided style after he eradicated Aman Sehrawat from India with a 10-0 rating by technical superiority.
Whereas Lee has an opportunity at gold on Friday, two of his teammates from the U.S. weren’t as lucky.
4-time NCAA champion Aaron Brooks, who eradicated 2020 Olympic gold medalist David Taylor to make the U.S. staff, suffered a last-second loss in his match in opposition to Bulgaria’s Magomed Ramazanov.
Brooks began sturdy and seemed like he was in management however after giving up a two-point takedown, Ramazanov grabbed a leg and began twisting in an try to get one other flip. Whereas Brooks didn’t give up the factors, his foot was torqued backwards on the similar time Ramazanov was pulling on his head.
A stall name from the referee noticed the wrestlers rise up once more however Brooks was clearly bothered with a possible harm to his again. The match continued with Brooks up 3-2 and he desperately tried to carry on for the win whereas grabbing onto Ramazanov’s foot throughout a takedown try.
Simply earlier than the horn sounded, Ramazanov labored his foot free and secured the takedown for 2 factors and the win to defeat the American. A disappointing end result for Brooks, who was favored to win in Paris, however he’ll nonetheless get an opportunity to assert a bronze medal on Friday.
The identical goes for two-time Olympic medalist Helen Maroulis in what is sort of definitely one of many remaining competitions of her profession. After changing into the primary girl to ever win gold for america in wrestling again in 2016, Maroulis adopted that up with a bronze medal win in 2020.
She’ll go for bronze once more on Friday after falling to Japanese phenom Tsugumi Sakurai, who took over the match after giving up factors early however then shutting down the American the remainder of the best way. The ultimate rating was 10-4 with Sakurai transferring onto the gold medal match.
Each Brooks and Maroulis will nonetheless wrestle for bronze whereas Lee makes an attempt to turn out to be the primary males’s staff member from america to win gold after Amit Elor and Sarah Hildebrandt captured gold for the ladies’s staff.
