Leydecker Dominates En Route to U20 World Championship

The American women at the U20 World Championships got their first medal on Thursday as Everest Leydecker put the finishing touches on a dominant, gold-medal winning run through the 55 kg bracket. Leydecker was nearly flawless as she outscored the competition 40-2 in her four matches in Bulgaria. 

In the finals, Leydecker squared off with India’s Reena Sangwan, a returning U20 and U23 world bronze medalist. After about :45 seconds of getting acquainted with each other, Leydecker was able to grab a single leg and quickly converted for a takedown. Leydecker immediately transitioned into a leg lace and proceeded to turn Sangwan three times to take a commanding 8-0 lead. 

That sequence was responsible for all of the scoring that Leydecker needed in the gold medal bout. From that point, she wrestled in a defensive manner and didn’t put herself in danger of letting Sangwan back in the match. 

The Indian wrestler did get on the scoreboard with a second-period shot clock violation on Leydecker. During the final ten seconds of the bout, Sangwan would get a second period for a caution. She then defended a Sangwan shot for a takedown at the buzzer. Those were the only two points Leydecker surrendered all tournament. 

Leydecker’s path to the gold medal included wins over a 2024 U17 world silver medalist and two 2024 U20 world bronze medalists. She proved to be the proverbial “bad draw.” 

Just 17 years old, the high school senior will have multiple opportunities to try and add more U20 gold to her collection. 

The other highlight of the day for the women’s freestyle team was Audrey Jimenez advancing to the finals of the 50 kg weight class. This is a familiar position for Jimenez, who already has a pair of U20 world silver medals to her name. 

Jimenez started her tournament with a :15 second tech and then moved into the semifinals after a second straight 10-0 blanking. In the semis, Jimenez tangled with Ukraine’s Diana Rysova who initially proved to be tough to takedown. After a couple of attempts by Jimenez, she finally got to and finished on a leg attack and then proceeded to turn Rysova four times in a leg lace to jump out to a 10-1 lead. Before the end of the first period, Jimenez would get a second takedown and turned Rysova for a 14-3 win via tech. 

For the elusive gold medal, Jimenez will have to go through Japan’s Rinka Ogawa, a 2023 U17 world champion. Ogawa has not surrendered a point in her three matches. 

Along with Jimenez, there were two other American women who started their tournaments and advanced to the semifinals on Thursday. Unfortunately, both Abbi Cooper (53 kg) and Jasmine Robinson (72 kg) were defeated in that round. Cooper ran into a buzzsaw in the form of Japan’s Natsumi Masuda and was pinned late in the first period. Robinson took a quick 6-0 lead on India’s Kajal; however, it went downhill from there as Kajal reeled off the next 13 points to win 13-6. 

Both women will drop down to a bronze medal match on Friday. Their opponents will be determined via repechage. 

Speaking of a bronze medal match, Danielle Nugent wrestled in on Thursday. She suffered a 10-0 loss to Turkiye’s  Beyza Akkus - a returning U20 world silver medalist. 

Action in the Greco-Roman tournament also got underway on Thursday as two Americans were in action. Isaiah Cortez (60 kg) and Arvin Khosravy (82 kg) both picked up wins in their first match of the day, but were downed in the second. Unfortunately, both have been eliminated from medal contention as their opponents fell before the finals. 

Women’s Freestyle

50 kg

Round of 16: Audrey Jimenez over Adriana Daniseviciute (Lithuania)  10-0

Quarterfinals: Audrey Jimenez over Na Hu (China)  10-0

Semifinals: Audrey Jimenez over Diana Rysova (Ukraine)  14-3

53 kg

Round of 16: Abbi Cooper over Nikol Dimitrova Aleksandrova (Bulgaria)  10-0

Quarterfinals: Abbi Cooper over Ekaterina Chikanova (Russia)  10-0

Semifinals: Natsumi Masuda (Japan) over Abbi Cooper  Fall 2:29

55 kg

Gold Medal Match: Everest Leydecker over Reena Sangwan (India)  10-2

65 kg

Bronze Medal Match: Beyza Akkus (Turkiye) over Daniella Nugent  10-0

72 kg

Round of 32: Jasmine Robinson over Elvira Ersson (Sweden)  12-0

Round of 16: Jasmine Robinson over Ai Sakai (Japan)  Fall :37

Quarterfinals: Jasmine Robinson over Veronika Vilk (Croatia)  Fall 1:21

Semifinals: Kajal (India) over Jasmine Robinson  13-6

Greco Roman

60 kg

Round of 32: Isaiah Cortez over Kristin Petrov (Bulgaria)  Fall 2:31

Round of 16: Papik Dzhavadian (Russia) over Isaiah Cortez  8-5

82 kg

Round of 32: Arvin Khosravy over Yrisbek Kalyev (Kyrgyzstan)  7-2

Round of 16: Seyed Azarshab (Iran) over Arvin Khosravy  11-0

Final Medal Round Results

55 kg

Gold Medal Match: Everest Leydecker (USA) over Reena Sangwan (India)  10-2

Bronze Medal Match: Gerda Terek (Hungary) over Alexandra Voiculescu (Romania)  6-2

Bronze Medal Match: So Tsutsui (Japan) over Tuba Demir (Turkiye)  5-3

62 kg

Gold Medal Match: Yangzhen (China) over Ruzanna Mammadova (Azerbaijan)  6-6

Bronze Medal Match: Niginia Sabirova (Uzbekistan) over Busra Efe (Turkiye)  8-0

Bronze Medal Match: Shirin Takemoto (Japan) over Neevis Rodriguez Cantu (Mexico)  9-7

65 kg

Gold Medal Match: Momoko Kitade (Japan) over Margarita Salnazarian (Russia)  9-5

Bronze Medal Match: Beyza Akkus (Turkiye) over Daniella Nugent (USA)  10-0

Bronze Medal Match: Iryna Borysiuk (Ukraine) over Mouda Hamdoun (Egypt)  12-2

76 kg

Gold Medal Match: Nadiia Sokolovska (Ukraine) over Priya (India)  Fall :46

Bronze Medal Match: Cancan Liu (China) over Tuvshinjargal Tarav (Mongolia)  6-0

Bronze Medal Match: Diana Titova (Russia) over Evelin Ujhelji (Serbia)  FFT

Friday’s Gold Medal Matches

Women’s Freestyle 

50 kg: Audrey Jimenez (USA) vs. Rinka Ogawa (Japan)

53 kg: Natsumi Masuda (Japan) vs. Anastasiia Polska (Ukraine)

72 kg: Kajal (India) vs. Yuqi Liu (China)

Greco-Roman

60 kg: Yurik Mkhitaryan (Armenia) vs. Aykhan Javadov (Azerbaijan)

82 kg: Mikhail Shkarin (Russia) vs. Dias Seitkaliyev (Kazakhstan)