Taylor and Arujau Finish 2024 World Championships with Bronze Medals

The final day of the 2024 World Championships proved to be the best day of the event from an American standpoint. There weren’t any new weight classes that started so it was just the repechage and medal round matches for the men’s freestyle weights. That meant that only two Americans were in action on the day. Vito Arujau had already secured a spot in a bronze medal match at 61 kg, while David Taylor needed to win a pair of repechage bouts to advance to a bronze medal contest.

Not only did both wrestlers pull through and come away with bronze medals, but each had to defeat a past world champion. 

Arujau’s bronze medal opponent was 2020 Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Zavur Uguev of Russia. Arujau struck within the first minute of the bout with a sweep single for a takedown. A step-out point accounted for Uguev’s only offensive output in the first period. 

In the second stanza, Arujau also struck late in the first minute of the period with an outside leg attack that he ran around of a takedown. During that exchange, the former Cornell star appeared to injure his hand or fingers and was in a significant amount of pain. Arujau shook off the pain and continued to initiate the offense with a low double leg for a takedown. 

Uguev was able to get his lone takedown of the bout with about :45 seconds remaining in the final period after a wild exchange. The Russian continued to try for a comeback and ended up jumping into an Arujau double leg during the waning seconds of the bout. The final score was 8-3 in favor of Arujau. 

Arujau has now earned Senior world medals in back-to-back years. He won a world title at 61 kg in 2023. 

Taylor strung together a hard-fought win over Abubakr Abakarov (Azerbaijan) and a dominant performance over Lars Schaefle (Germany) to advance to the bronze medal matchup against Kamran Ghasempour (Iran). 

Though a bronze medal was on the line and Ghasempour wasn’t exactly Abdulrashid Sadulaev - it was a gigantic bout. One that could have taken place in a world final, under different conditions. Ghasempour is a two-time world champion at 92 kg with his most recent gold medal (2022) coming at the expense of American J’den Cox in the world finals. Sadulaev narrowly escaped with a 5-3 win over Ghasempour in a semifinal that was determined in the closing seconds of the bout. 

The Iranian was responsible for the only scoring in the opening period of his bronze medal match with Taylor. A lefty high-crotch to a double led to a takedown and a 2-0 lead at the break. 

As is usually the case with Taylor against international foes, his offensive barrage was way too much to sustain in the second period. Taylor grabbed a takedown early in the second period to knot the match at 2-2 and then shot and scored immediately on the ensuing restart to suddenly go ahead 4-2. 

Late in the bout, Ghasempour was desperate to score and got out of position. Taylor simply bull-rushed the Iranian for a final takedown and a 6-2 win. 

As suspected, in a post-match interview, Taylor confirmed that this was his final match. It was truly a fitting end to a remarkable career. Taylor rarely ever had to wrestle in a consolation or repechage, but he was able to respond to a crushing loss by defeating a multiple-time world champion for a final world medal. 

Taylor’s final medal count is as follows. He has a 2020 Olympic gold medal to go with three world titles, a silver medal, and this bronze. 

There’s no time for Taylor to celebrate and reflect on his competitive career as he stated that he’ll fly home and participate in recruiting visits on Friday as he prepares for his first season as head coach of Oklahoma State University.