Blades Earns Bronze Medal on Final Day of Women's Competition at World Championships

Thursday at the 2025 World Championships featured the final four women’s weight classes, along with the beginning of the Greco-Roman portion of the tournament.

There was only one American woman in action on Thursday, as Kennedy Blades was eligible for a bronze medal at 68 kg. Blades started the day with a solid 9-2 win over Ukraine’s Manola Skobelska. That set the stage for a bronze medal bout versus Turkiye’s Buse Tosun, a 2023 world champion and a bronze medalist at the 2024 Olympic Games.

In the battle of 2024 Olympic medalists, it was Blades who came out on top with a 12-1 decision. After a pair of points from a step-out and a passivity clock violation, Blades broke the match open in the final seconds of the opening period. Tosun attempted an ill-fated arm-spin, leaving her vulnerable to a reshot. Blades took advantage with a double leg at the boundary for two points. Blades continues to turn up the pressure and shot Tosun out of bounds for another step out and a 5-0 lead heading into the second period.

The second period saw Tosun make a concerted effort to push the pace and pressure Blades. The American correctly responded and was able to throw-by or side step the pressure from Tosun and respond with an attack of her own. That led to three takedowns in the final two minutes and a 12-1 win via technical superiority for Blades.

In her short Senior level career, Blades now owns an Olympic silver medal and a world bronze medal.

The US women’s freestyle team finished in fifth place, behind champions Japan, North Korea, the Russian team wrestling under the UWW banner, and China.

Three US women earned medals (Helen Maroulis/gold, Blades/bronze, and Kylie Welker/bronze). That number is the lowest for a women’s team in a full world championship event since they had three in 2019. At the same time, it wasn’t totally unforeseen, being the first year after the Olympic Games - typically a transitional year.

Judging by the draws for the wrestlers competing on day one in Greco-Roman, we knew the American squad had its work cut out for them. Both Kamal Bey (77 kg) and Cohlton Schultz (130 kg) were drawn into a first match with a former world champion and Olympic medalist. Each fought valiantly but lost a close decision. Bey, 2-1 to Malkas Amoyan (Armenia) and Schultz, 5-2 to Sergei Semenov (UWW - Russia). Amoyan ended up making the world finals, which brought Bey back into repechage tomorrow. He’ll have to win two matches just to wrestle for a bronze medal.

The lone American to get his hand raised on Thursday was the youngest member of the squad, high school senior Jayden Raney. Raney pulled out a tight win over Koriun Sahradian (Ukraine) in the Round of 32. In his next bout, he pinned Iraq’s Sajjad Albidhan in a nasty armbar.

Raney’s two wins pitted him against the three-time world champion and five-time world medalist Eldaniz Azizli in the quarterfinals. The younger acquitted himself nicely against Azizli, but ultimately fell, 5-1.

Unfortunately, Azizli was upset in the semifinals, which eliminated Raney from medal contention.

Wrestling alongside Bey tomorrow will be Max Black (60 kg), Alex Sancho (72 kg), and Michial Foy (97 kg). 

USA Results

Women’s Freestyle

68 kg

Repechage: Kennedy Blades over Manola Skobelska (Ukraine)  9-2

Bronze Medal Match: Kennedy Blades over Buse Tosun (Turkiye)  12-1
 

Greco-Roman

55 kg

Round of 32: Jayden Raney over Koriun Sahradian (Ukraine)  2-1

Round of 16: Jayden Raney over Sajjad Albidhan (Iraq)  Fall 4:26

Quarterfinals: Eldaniz Azizli (Azerbaijan) over Jayden Raney  5-1
 

77 kg

Round of 32: Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) over Kamal Bey  2-1
 

82 kg

Round of 32: Shahin Badaghimofrad (Qatar) over Beka Melelashvili  6-4
 

130 kg

Round of 32: Sergei Semenov (UWW - Russia) over Cohlton Schultz  5-2

Final Results

53 kg

Gold Medal Match: Haruna Okuno (Japan) over Lucia Yepez Guzman (Ecuador)  5-0

Bronze Medal Match: Antim Panghal (India) over Emma Malmgren (Sweden)  9-1

Bronze Medal Match: Hyogyong Choe (North Korea) over Shokhida Akhmedova (Uzbekistan)  Fall 3:59
 

62 kg

Gold Medal Match: Sakura Motoki (Japan) over Ok Ju Kim (North Korea)  5-4

Bronze Medal Match: Orkhon Purevdorj (Mongolia) over Esther Kolawole (Nigeria)  6-5

Bronze Medal Match: Amina Tandelova (UWW - Russia) over Bilyana Dudova (Bulgaria)  4-2
 

68 kg

Gold Medal Match: Ami Ishii (Japan) over Yuliana Yaneva (Bulgaria)  4-2

Bronze Medal Match: Kennedy Blades (USA) over Buse Tosun (Turkiye)  12-1

Bronze Medal Match: Jia Long (China) over Sol Gum Pak (North Korea)  6-1
 

72 kg

Gold Medal Match: Alla Belinska (Ukraine) over Nesrin Bas (Turkiye)  Fall 4:25

Bronze Medal Match: Nurzat Nurtaeva (Kyrgyzstan) over Pauline LeCarpentier (France)  5-0

Bronze Medal Match: Zelu Li (China) over Alexandra Anghel (Romania)  7-4
 

Friday’s Gold Medal Matches

Greco-Roman

55 kg: Payam Ahmadi (Iran) vs. Vakhtang Lolua (Georgia)

77 kg: Nao Kusaka (Japan) vs. Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia)

82 kg: Gholamreza Farokhisenjani (Iran) vs. Gela Bolkvadze (Georgia)

130 kg: Amin Mirazazadeh (Iran) vs. Darius Vitek (Hungary)