Biggest over performance at Worlds

[Eagle26]

We had a lot of great performances at worlds. Which one was the most surprising and most impressive to you? Some of my top choices include 

1. Real Woods taking bronze in a loaded weight. Even though he didn’t have quite as good of wins as some others, I would have never picked this result!

2. Levi beating a former world champ on his way to the finals! Didn’t know what to expect from him. Honestly was predicting DNP and never would have picked him over Usmanov but glad he proved me wrong! 

3. Zahid dominating everyone including Ghasempour. I did have Zahid picked to win, but never would have guessed the margin of victory and out scoring his opponent 49-0.

4. Jax being so close to a bronze medal while still in high. Not exactly surprising but incredibly impressive. I was very impressed with his win over Suda and wouldn’t have called that one. 

5. Trent coming back from 8-0 to win his world title. I thought he had a decent chance at gold, but it was a bit of a wildcard. I certainly wouldn’t have expected such an amazing comeback!

6. Helen winning another gold, pinning her way to the finals and getting a last second takedown to win the championship! I knew she was still amazing, but what a tournament for her!

6. Snyder winning another gold with Taz and Azarpira in the weight. He didn’t have to beat Taz but I didn’t have him picked to beat either one. I did figure he would be right in the mix so not quite as surprising to me. 

I think that’s my order. I chose Real as number 1 simply because if you would have told me these before the tournament started, it’s the one that I would say was the most unlikely. What do you all think? Any others to add?

[juniorvarsity]

North Korea was a surprise to me.

[Eagle26]

8 hours ago, juniorvarsity said:

North Korea was a surprise to me.

That’s true. I was just looking at our results, but they were definitely impressively 

[MPhillips]

Iran GR is notable if not more...

[Lucho]

3 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Iran GR is notable if not more...

I felt like before the tournament we could send 5 guys to the finals (Esmaeili, Farokhi, Mohmedi, Saravi and Mirzazadeh). The over performance was more so I think at 55 and 63kg. Ahmadi beating Azizli and Keshtkar teching Muradov were completely out of nowhere results. Ahmadi is good but I didn't think he was that good shame he lost his finals match to another incredibly talented wrestler. 60 and 77 performed more or less to how I thought it would turn out in terms of not medalling. Its more a combination of Azerbaijan doing incredibly poorly and other heavy hitters losing early (Alexanyan, Luis Orta Sanchez etc). 

[GrandOlm]

Team:

Japan FS: A lot of there stars were out and they still easily grabbed third place.

Iran GR: What a beatdown. Double or almost double the points of number 2? They can win two more golds tomorrow and sweep all the weights 82kg and north. 

Individuals FS: Han was a surprise gold. I'll throw Haru and Baran some bones for beating people beating a heavy favorite and getting an all time best result in your 30s. 

Individuals Greco: Lolua and Amoyan. Lolua won a field that included a rising prodigy and a dominant champion. Amoyan upset the olympic champ who made it to the finals. For non golds, I think Kyrl and Elias took the biggest scalps while medaling. 

I think the candidates for biggest under performers are a stronger bunch, but that's not what the thread is about. 

[RawDog]

I agree with real woods being most surprising.  He seems to have jumped levels quickly considering he was in a couple nailbiters just to make the team at wtt.

Levi is pretty surprising as well.  I think we have several guys better than him at the weight and if he didn't perform well it would have been a bitter pill to swallow.

Not surprised at all with Jax and Zahid after watching they way they handled Vito and Dake.

Helen and Snyder have been doing this for a minute, it's just what they do.

We all knew Trent was capable, glad he was able to put it all together and get it done.