Sr. Worlds... Days 5 thru 9

[BaldHeadedShannon]

Are they running medals on one mat only today? Had a busy day at work and haven't been able to log on until now but can only get one mat when two are shown in the streaming options.

[nhs67]

3 minutes ago, BaldHeadedShannon said:

Are they running medals on one mat only today? Had a busy day at work and haven't been able to log on until now but can only get one mat when two are shown in the streaming options.

No, it's both mats still.

It was.  Looks to be over now.

Edited yesterday at 05:05 PM by nhs67

[BaldHeadedShannon]

3 minutes ago, nhs67 said:

No, it's both mats still.

It was.  Looks to be over now.

I'm having technical difficulties I guess. They're doing the medal matches for 82 right now but I can only watch one mat at a time. Better than nothing. I'm just grateful this wasn't happening during men and women's freestyle.

[Tripnsweep]

I remember Dake wrestled a world champion from Armenia at a dual meet or something and did pretty well. He lost but it wasn't one sided, he scored some points at least and was somewhat competitive. I think there was speculation he may go that route because he wasn't going to beat Burroughs at that time. 

Also I think Hancock did wrestle in college, I might be wrong, but I thought he wrestled D3 somewhere. 

[Danny_92]

Looks like Iran will win the Greco roman team title too.

 

[BruceyB]

2 hours ago, nhs67 said:

What I said was I wish our Tier 1 athletes, the ones with the most success at our American Folkstyle, would focus on Greco.

Those who cannot wrestle, wrestle Greco. I say that tongue-in-cheek, but with folkstyle being the foundational style in USA wrestling, the first exposure kids get to the sport includes leg attacks. The first move most kids learn is a double leg. Then you learn freestyle which also shares in folkstyle the leg attacks so our folk background translates fairly easily into freestyle. Greco is kind of this odd style where much of our fundamental skills in the sport don't apply. I don't know how many 8 year old wrestlers dream of winning an Olympic Gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, or whose favorite wrestler is a Greco star. Freestyle is King in the USA and I don't think that is ever going to change unless the foundation of USA wrestling drastically changes.

[GrandOlm]

6 hours ago, BruceyB said:

Those who cannot wrestle, wrestle Greco. I say that tongue-in-cheek, but with folkstyle being the foundational style in USA wrestling, the first exposure kids get to the sport includes leg attacks. The first move most kids learn is a double leg. Then you learn freestyle which also shares in folkstyle the leg attacks so our folk background translates fairly easily into freestyle. Greco is kind of this odd style where much of our fundamental skills in the sport don't apply. I don't know how many 8 year old wrestlers dream of winning an Olympic Gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, or whose favorite wrestler is a Greco star. Freestyle is King in the USA and I don't think that is ever going to change unless the foundation of USA wrestling drastically changes.

That's sort of happening to Russian right now, with a lot of their C team caucus region wrestlers opting for Greco (since it's easier to make the team).  The results have not been great. 

[GrandOlm]

Biggest upsets were Aleksanjan and Nao. Although, 77 kg is a turnover machine and Nao secured the ultimate prize already (something that Akzhol may rue till the day he retires)

I'm not sure what Aleksanjan's plans and motivations are. Just try again at the Olympics? He keeps finding creative ways of losing. And where is Milov? Injured? Wins Euro gold and then disappears, great. 

I think Bisultanov is the most talented rep at 87 kg but I get the feeling that Losincz is starting to mentally own some of the other medal contender wrestlers (Komarov, Novikov, Takacs).

Want to see how Emelin does. I don't think any truly great wrestlers are in his bracket, but Emelin would be another rare bright spot for another abysmal performance by Russia's longstanding standards. 

[GrandOlm]

The only wrestler in the US with a reasonable chance to win a bronze or silver medal is Bey. And Bey would still need a favorable draw (to avoid someone like Akzhol) and to be wrestling his best to actually do it. 

The rest of them are not good enough. Some of them I think aren't athletically gifted enough and they maneuvered their way into greco "safe spaces" after rude wake up calls in their folk style journeys (somewhat big fish moving into a small pond). A couple are fine athletes but are thousands of hours behind in greco mat time compared to their competitors.

I think I saw a Flo guy named Brey complaining about why the 55 kg rep couldn't do what the US teen freestylers did. It's clueless and he doesn't even understand why the FS wrestlers in the US do well. Why should Raney beat someone like Azizli? He hasn't put in anywhere near the time, it's just winging it Braxton Amos style. It can work in juniors but you get exposed at seniors. 

(I'm not counting the Georgian adult transfer, since he is about as relevant to the actual state of US wrestling as Taz is to Bahrain). 

Edited 3 hours ago by GrandOlm

[maligned]

Last man standing for us is Payton Jacobson at 87kg. He'll be in the repechage tomorrow.

[maligned]

So far, only Raney (7th place) and Bey (10th) have scored for us.

[LemonPie]

I’d be down to cut Greco completely if it meant more participation in the freestyle ranking series.