Sr.Worlds... Day 4

[ScottishSteel]

China beats Italy 8 - 0; Jimenez is eliminated

[ScottishSteel]

Welker coming out on Mat A for the last bout of the session (for both America and the session in general)

[ScottishSteel]

Sidebar . . . the Cuban woman just tech'd Japan in under a minute . . . that was unexpected

[ScottishSteel]

Welker gets a single leg and gets behind to take a 2 - 0 lead on Kyrgyzstan

[ScottishSteel]

Both wrestlers content to hit the break at 2 - 0 Welker

[ScottishSteel]

Looks like Ecuador tech'd Italy; if Welker holds on that will be 3 Pan Am women into the semi's at 76 kg

[ScottishSteel]

Welker runs Kyrgyzstan right off the mat; 3 - 0 w/ 2 minutes to go

[ScottishSteel]

Kyrgyzstan picks up a stepout; officials are conferring to see if it's a step out or a TD

Officials call it a TD

3 - 2 Welker w/ a minute to go

[ScottishSteel]

Kyrgyzstan really driving w/ an underhook now; wants that stepout point

[ScottishSteel]

grounded and out

24 seconds left

[ScottishSteel]

Kyrgyzstan gets the underhook again and Welker tries to go out of bounds and Kyrgyzstan shucks it by for the TD and adds at turn

 

6 - 3 w/ 6 seconds to go

[ScottishSteel]

Welker gives up a TD at the end to lose 8 - 3

[LemonPie]

Ditching folkstyle doesn’t seem to help the women’s team. Woof.  Looks like Budapest wasn’t a fluke.

[CA_Wrestler]

37 minutes ago, ScottishSteel said:

Sidebar . . . the Cuban woman just tech'd Japan in under a minute . . . that was unexpected

Not really.  Japan's 76 this year isn't very good.  The only good wrestler they have at 76kg is Kagami, the OIympic champ.

[CA_Wrestler]

10 minutes ago, LemonPie said:

Ditching folkstyle doesn’t seem to help the women’s team. Woof.  Looks like Budapest wasn’t a fluke.

Terrible performance.  As I was saying in a different thread a month or so ago, this is the weakest Womens FS team Japan has sent since 2019.  Their 2025 World team is literally all 3rd-4th string besides 50kg(2021 50kg WC) and 62kg(2024 Olympic champ) since the 2024 Olympic reps(minus 62kg) aren't competing this year.

[Tripnsweep]

The US women's team is so far laying an egg. Maroulis and Blades are going to carry this thing. 

[ScottishSteel]

1 hour ago, CA_Wrestler said:

Not really.  Japan's 76 this year isn't very good.  The only good wrestler they have at 76kg is Kagami, the OIympic champ.

Fair, in the heat of things w/ all the mats going I hadn't looked into it - just caught the "Cuba techs Japan" and was like whoa

[bnwtwg]

Been stuck onsite all morning, Woods sounds like a revelation glad to be very wrong about him. Being in a medal match at 65 is nuts. Helen doing Helen things as expected. Welker going down sucks though was hoping for a finals appearance. Hopefully pulled back in.

[insidecradle]

Crowd looks pretty light

[Dark Energy]

Maroulis set that up and executed beautifully.  Awesome technique.  Pin!!  On to the finals!!!!

Edited 7 hours ago by Dark Energy

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

37 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

Been stuck onsite all morning, Woods sounds like a revelation glad to be very wrong about him. Being in a medal match at 65 is nuts. Helen doing Helen things as expected. Welker going down sucks though was hoping for a finals appearance. Hopefully pulled back in.

Tough.  Stingy.  Most importantly... SMART.

[Ragu]

I love Helen Maroulis 

[ScottishSteel]

I took the time to actually just watch Helen instead of trying to post about it.  She's truly an American legend and I've reached the point where I just want to make sure I watch whatever matches she has left.

[CA_Wrestler]

1 hour ago, ScottishSteel said:

Fair, in the heat of things w/ all the mats going I hadn't looked into it - just caught the "Cuba techs Japan" and was like whoa

Oh yeah, for sure.  When I'm watching, I can only pay attention to one match at a time if I'm typing down what's going on in real time.

[CA_Wrestler]

11 minutes ago, ScottishSteel said:

I took the time to actually just watch Helen instead of trying to post about it.  She's truly an American legend and I've reached the point where I just want to make sure I watch whatever matches she has left.

I think she might make a final run towards LA 2028 even though that's far away and that would be great because after her, there is really nobody else at 57kg for the US that could be this consistent and reach the medal rounds.

I always wonder how Team Japan feels about Susaki being good friends with Helen.  Especially since Susaki flew out to NY to train with Helen a few months ago and Helen beat Tokuhara in this tournament.  Not that Tokuhara was going to place anyways...she's usually 3rd/4th string at 59kg for Japan.  It certainly helped that Sakurai isn't Japan's rep this year at 57kg.