ILLINIWrestlingBlog

Easy to root for the fellow on deck on Mat C, SGT Xavier Johnson:

What if ...

And the fall is challenged, but the challenge is lost! Turkey-Yeah! into the finals, Ukraine into repechage. Win-win there. Cheers and I'm out, D3!

I'm rooting for Turkey-Yeah! here because that would bring to repechage the Ukrainian who beat Braunagel. Sancho is out with the loss by the Armenian giant. Durn.

Wow. That 67 kilo Armenian must be six-foot tall! Sancho has to hope he goes on to win in the semis. The American loses by techfall.

The Azerbaijani who beat SGT Johnson won in the next round. He only has to win one more for Johnson to be pulled back in. Unfortunately, Zac Braunagel wore out his reigning Olympic Champion opponent in their match. He lost a close one after that. Zac is out. Brent Metcalf Syndrome. Specialist Alejandro Sancho up in one on Mat D.

VARIOUS REACTIONS TO ALEJANDRO SANCHO'S LAST-SECOND COME-FROM-BEHIND WIN: CHINA'S COACH: WTF were you thinking? (but in Chinese). SERGEANT FIRST CLASS SPENSER MANGO: We had that all the way. FREESTYLE FANS: Booooring! FOLKSTYLE FANS: Sancho needs to develop a leg attack. He never ONCE touched China's leg. ESPN: We are the World Leader in SOME SPORTS. ME: I'm going to open a new wrestling camp: The ILLINI Wrestling Blog and Forum and Beyond Intensive Three-Week Interlocking Fingers Camp. SANCHO: Movin' on!

Specialist Alejandro Sancho with the last :03 takedown for the 3-0 win. That was beautifully violent! Congratulations, you are moving on. (And the fact you whupped China makes it extra sweet). GO AMERICA!!!

Salute to Sgt Xavier Johnson for putting up a huge fight against his World Bronze Azerbaijani opponent.

Sancho and Johnson won their first round matches as well! GO USA!

I didn't see Zac's second match against the current Olympic Gold Medalist and previous Olympic Silver and multiple World Championship medalist Zhan Beleniuk of Ukraine because I was busy working on this: But according to Coach Medlin, it was a 1-5 loss for the Brawlnagel that probably tuckered out the Ukrainian. I hope we don't see "Brent Metcalf Syndrome," where you wear out your opponent so much they lose their next round match. Rather, hoping for repechage. Still, you gotta respect the fact that Brawny will put up his best against the best and not lay down. In his last three international matches, Zac has faced two MULTIPLE Olympic and World Medalists, and the cumulative score for both matches is 2 for the good guy and 7 for the bad guys. And he's just starting.

Zac Braunagel wins his first-round match against Turkmenistan! He was down early because his failed throw was turned into two for the Turkmen, then he was hit for passivity. Then, Zac went to work wearing out his opponent. He got pushout after pushout until he got his own passivity point, then he hit a four-point throw on the edge. His opponent challenged and lost. Final 8-3 for Zac! He's got a living legend in the next round, the multi-Olympic and World medalist from Ukraine, Zhan Beleniuk. So, he can shock the world or get some repechage action. GO ILLINI RTC!

@WildTurk, I wrote an article a long time ago about the first Iranian women's team to attend the grappling world championships. They actually won a few medals. This was around the time that "Wrestling Diplomacy" had opened up their country, with American teams traveling to Iran and Iranian teams traveling to America. But the Iranian women never returned. Hardliners in Iran took over, and the politics have gotten chilly. I was hoping with the Women's Revolution in Iran this past year that things would change for wrestling and grappling but so far nothing--although I did see a reference to Iranian women winning a 2019 no-belt championship--whatever that is. As you can see in the picture below, the ladies did wear a hijab, but their faces were uncovered.

Dang. Joe Rau did a great job early in the first period to put Ojog of Romania down. He went with a gut, and it looked very, very close to scoring. It wasn't, so he moved on to a grounded head-pinch, got over-extended and the Romanian pinned him. I hope the Raustler continues into the Olympic season. He's fun to watch and always looking to pin. Zac Braunagel up in two on Mat B versus Turkmenistan.

Third, folks have asked, Why did Brands out himself? Well, psychology. If you make money gambling, you have to tell the world. That's the rule. It's the same reason the Ferraris go shirtless, even on what they call "Sixpack Sundays" at church.

First, there are laws against insider trading on Wall Street, and they are there to keep folks from unfairly profiting from insider knowledge. Yes, those laws seem to be haphazardly enforced, and in the case of Congress, not enforced at all. But I think everybody agrees that the laws are necessary even though trading or selling stock in itself is not against the law. For a similar reason, university athletes can't bet on sports. Then, there are the additional policy concerns involved when athletes become addicted, blackmailed, in debt, squeezed, or are out and out cheating. There are a lot of potential problems. Second, this thread has almost reached five pages and nobody has done this?

IRAN FREESTYLE & GRECO (w/no Women's team) 1985 - 1 Medalist 1986 - 0 1987 - 0 1989 - 3 Medalists 1990 - 3 Medalists 1991 - 3 Medalists ... 1998 - 6 Medalists ... 2015 - 7 Medalists ... 2021 - 7 Medalists (just in Freestyle!) I haven't looked at the numbers for India, but they seem to be improving at an incredible clip. Same with San Marino and Bahrain!

In 1985, 15 countries won at least one medal at the Freestyle/Greco World Championships in Kolbotn, Norway. In 2005, there were 27 countries winning at least one medal. Now, that includes women's wrestling (which didn't have a championship back in 1985), but the only winners in the women's competition that didn't have a winner in the men's Free or Greco were France, Norway and, surprisingly, Japan and China. There were 81 countries that participated in 2005. In 2018, the number of countries participating went up to 88. Japan and China won medals in Greco last year, and I even saw Japanese and Indian wrestlers winning matches this year in the 72 and 77 weight classes, which make them the fattest people from their respective countries. I think it might be that the US hasn't gotten worse, but that the world has gotten better (and there's more of them). Just ask the Soviet Union!

I noticed that as well. The Iranians get special mention for starting up while their wrestlers are on deck. Then, they just whip themselves more and more like a horse in the home stretch. Good luck.

Pat Smith is out. Sad to see, as he's fun to watch. Hafizov still with a chance at repechage, but his opponent will have to beat last year's World Champion. Joe Rau still in with a very good repechage chance. On another note, some folks think that Tazhudinov's two wins over Snyderlaev were the best matches of the tournament; others go with Musukaev's gas tank performances or Giant Stevan Micic's improbable run, but the match of the World Championships is still going on: Jason Bryant's voice versus the Iranian crowd noise. So far, Bryant has held his own, but the Iranians have upped their game.

Olympic and World Championship legend Artur Aleksanyan gets the 9-0 win over Joe Rau. The American comedian was put down, even though he was closer to the center and pushing the action more often than the Armenian in that first period. Having a reputation sure helps in Greco! Aleksanyan used a gut-tilt to rack up his points for the first-period win. This was like a folkstyle cheap tilt, but the Armenian didn't have to change arm position for each score. Rau will almost surely wrestle in the repechage tomorrow. He just lost to a medal-winning maching. Josef's 1-1 in matches so far, and has a Euro Gold tomorrow who needs to be whupped!

By the way, the crowd is as loud for Greco qualification matches as they were for Freestyle medal matches. A lot of those three-dollar clarinets smuggled into the arena. These folks are pumped the F up for Greco!

Pat Smith was up 1-0 at the break. He loves to wrestle in that tiny circle, his own private phone booth. In the second, Smith is put down and the Kazakh hits two gut wrenches. 1-5 at this time. Pat started his sprint with 1:07 on the clock but couldn't crack the Kazakh's defense, although he wrestled fiercely with a strong gas tank the whole time.

We just found out Joe Rau's next opponent. Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia won his qualification match against a Euro Gold. This is no surprise as Aleksanyan is a three-time Olympic medalist and a six-time World Championships medalist. Five of those medals Gold. Either Rau shocks the world or he's a solid bet to get a repechage chance.

Joe Rau wins 4-1. He owes it all to Satan. Rau pinned this guy two years ago, and he almost did it again today. The Croatian's head was just a smidge outside the ring. Kamal Bey loses 3-3. Great effort. Almost had the Moldovan in the sprint. Bey is still a super hero.