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2021 Senior World Championships

Kyle Dake is a World Champion, Fix and Taylor Take Home Silver Medals, Gilman and Burroughs Going for Gold

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Pictured: Eight-time  World/Olympic medalist Jordan Burroughs advances to the 79kg gold-medal finals at the 2021 Senior World Championships in Oslo, Norway, October 3. Photo by Justin Hoch/(@justinhoch). 

Session four in Oslo, Norway, at the 2021 World Championships was a busy one for Team USA freestylers.  Seven of Americans were in action during the session.

Semifinal Outcomes

Thomas Gilman (57kg) and Jordan Burroughs punched their tickets to the 2021 World gold-medal finals.

At 57kg, Gilman earned a 15-5 semifinal tech over Germany’s 2020 Euro Championships gold medalist Horst Lehr to advance.

At 79kg, Jordan Burroughs followed suit with a convincing 10-1 semifinal decision of his own over Japan’s Ryuki Yoshida. 

Then, J’den Cox (92kg) dropped a 3-3 decision on criteria (a caution) over Iran’s two-time Asian Championships gold medalist, Kamran Ghasempour.

Inside The Bouts

At 57kg, two back-to-back scrambles at the edge saw 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Thomas Gilman fall into an early 3-0 deficit against the surprising German lightweight Lehr. With that match tied 5-5, Gilman added a pair of step-outs in the final seconds of the first period to take a 7-5 lead. Gilman never looked back in the second, adding three takedowns, one of which was followed by a nice gut wrench, to close things out. 

Jordan Burroughs was able to get things done over Japan 10-1. After exchanging step-outs, Jordan hit a slick double in the final seconds of period one to take a 3-1 lead to period two. JB added a takedown-to-tilt combo in the second frame and then one final takedown to extend the lead.

At 92kg, despite Cox’s two best efforts in a quadpod, J’den was taken down once and then gave up a caution-and-one point with the Iranian in deep on separate leg attacks  near the edge. These two sequences proved to be the difference in the match.

With the match tied at 3-3 (a shot clock point and a takedown by J’den), the American still trailed on criteria. Unfortunately, J’den came up just short of securing the necessary step-out at the buzzer. Cox will wrestle for World bronze tomorrow.

Gold-Medal Match Outcomes 

In the first set of medal-round matchups, the Red, White, and Blue were 1-for-3. Kyle Dake (74kg) brought home gold while Daton Fix (61kg) and David Taylor (86kg) took home silver. Nick Gwiazdowski lost in the battle for bronze at 125kg. 

Inside the Bouts

61 Kilograms

Daton fought hard but came up short, losing 4-1, to Russia’s Abasgadzhi Magomedov, who now has one Senior World gold medal in as many attempts. With the bout tied 1-1 and a criteria advantage for Daton at the break, Fix gave up a shot clock point and then a takedown off a counter in period two. He fell by that same score. Fix is now 0-2 against Magomedov in his career. The last the duo met was at the 2015 Cadet World Championships.

74 Kilograms

Dake exchanged step-out points with Tajmuraz Salkazanov of Slovakia, a 2019 Senior World bronze medalist, to leave things knotted at 1-1 going into the break. The 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Dake was able to win the second period (and the match) after securing a takedown-to-gut combo. The American hung on to win 7-3. With that, Kyle Dake is now a three-time World gold medalist. His 2021 crown is the first at the Olympic weight (74kg). His last two World gold medals came at the heavier 79kg.

86 Kilograms

On day two in Norway, the marquee medal-round match came at 86kg, a rematch of the 86kg gold-medal match the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games between American David Taylor and Iranian Hassan Yazdani. The fourth iteration of this budding rivalry lived up its lofty billing but unfortunately did not go the way of the American.

David fell behind early, 2-0, on a pair of step-outs in favor of Iran. Yazdani was the clear aggressor in the first frame (and far more offensive than he was in Tokyo against Taylor, too). Heading into the second, Yazdani grabbed a slick takedown with two minutes left in the match. Taylor was able to cut the lead in half with a takedown of his own, but it wasn’t enough, 4-2 was as close as Taylor would get. Yazdani held on to win 6-2.

The fourth time is the charm for Yazdani. The series between these two currently sits at 3-1 in favor of the American.

125 Kilograms

At 125kg, eight-time World Olympic medalist Taha Akgul (Turkey) proved too much for Gwizz, a two-time World bronze medalist to handle. Akgul jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two takedowns and a gut wrench. In the second, Gwiazdowski was relentless with his shots but only converted twice. He lost a close one, 6-4. 

Up Next

Other TOM Coverage from the 2021 World Championships

Session 1 Recap here

Session 2 Recap here

Session 3 Recap here

USA Wrestling Recap 

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