Kamal Bey defeated Per Albin Olofsson of Sweden to reach the finals (Photo/Richard Immel)TAMPERE, Finland -- The U.S. Greco-Roman team delivered a strong performance in Saturday's opening session of the Junior World Championships in Tampere, Finland.
Three of the four Americans competing on Saturday advanced to medal matches, with two, Cevion Severado (50 kilograms) and Kamal Bey (74 kilograms), reaching the finals.
USA had not had a finalist at the Junior World Championships in Greco-Roman since 2000 when Joe Privitere won a silver medal at 69 kilograms in 2000. Garrett Lowney was the last American to win a Junior world title, accomplishing the feat in 1999 at 97 kilograms.
Taylor La Mont, a returning world bronze medalist, will wrestle in the bronze-medal match for the third consecutive year.
Cevion Severado reached the finals in his first World Championships (Photo/Richard Immel)Severado, who replaced the injured Elijah Varona, outscored his opposition 24-4 on his way to reaching the finals at 50 kilograms. His semifinal victory came over Japan's Kensuke Shimizu, who knocked off returning world champion Vladislav Melnikov of Russia by technical fall in the quarterfinals. He now meets Iran's Poya Soula Dad Marz for the gold medal.
Bey, a U.S. Open champion, put on a throwing clinic on his way to reaching the finals at 74 kilograms. He won three of his four matches by technical fall. In the semifinals, Bey jumped out to a comfortable lead and appeared to be on his way to another technical fall, but his opponent, Nasir Hasanov of Azerbaijan, battled back and came within three points. Bey then won a wild, high-scoring semifinal match, 19-7, over Per Albin Olofsson of Sweden.
Taylor La Mont defeated Sweden's Ardit Fazljija in the quarterfinals (Photo/Richard Immel)La Mont put together two strong matches to reach the semifinals at 60 kilograms. He opened with a 6-2 win over Cadet world bronze medalist Maksim Nehoda of Belarus, and then topped Sweden's Ardit Fazljija 8-3 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, La Mont met Ukrain's Oleksandr Hrushyn. The American scored first and took a 1-0 lead into the second period. Hrushyn came out strong in the second period, scoring first off a passivity and then getting a takedown and gut wrench turn to go up 5-1. The Ukranian would add an additional point off a step out to win by five.
Returning world bronze medalist Tracy Hancock opened with two straight wins before dropping a tight 4-3 match in the quarterfinals to Suleyman Erbay of Turkey. Hancock was eliminated from the tournament when Erbay lost by technical fall in the semifinals to Cadet world champion Artur Sargsian of Russia.
Saturday's final session is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. local time, 11 a.m. ET.
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