Felix Baldauf (97 kg) is sure getting his money’s worth as the World Championships approaches on the calendar. Earlier on Saturday, the 28-year-old won four matches en-route to landing himself a chance for gold at the 2023 Grand Prix of Germany in Dortmund.
Baldauf, who earned a European title in ’17, was embroiled in a tight affair against two-time World Champion Metehan Basar of Turkey in the opening round when the match was halted due to a Basar injury (the score was 1-1 at the time). Baldauf then went on to decision, in order: Sergey Omelin (UKR); Matthias Bak (DEN); and Lucas Lazogianis (GER). With gold hanging in the balance on Sunday, Baldauf will face ’21 U23 World silver Markus Ragginger of Austria.
In what has been a very busy competitive season for Baldauf, he has performed quite well. He placed fifth in two of the four “Ranking Series” tournaments offered — the Grand Prix Zagreb Open and the Polyak Imre Memorial, respectively — and came away with gold at the Nikola Petrov Memorial in March. As it stands currently, Baldauf is ranked #8 by United World Wrestling, which puts him right inside of the bubble when it comes to seeding at next month’s World Championships.
Joergensen
Baldauf is guaranteed a medal by virtue of appearing in tomorrow’s finals. ’23 European Championships bronze Haavard Joergensen (67 kg) is alive for hardware, as well, but he has a challenging road in front of him to do it.
Joergensen engaged in a hearty shootout with ’22 U23 World bronze Kyotaru Sogabe (JPN) and fell via criteria 6-6. It was the second meeting of the year for the two athletes. Sogabe also decisioned Joergensen at the aforementioned Petrov where the latter earned bronze and the former was the bracket’s runner-up. Sogabe caught fire after edging Joergensen. In the quarterfinal, the young Japanese star blanked ’22 World champ Sebastian Nad (SRB) 3-0 and dominated ’19 World bronze Tigran Galustyan (ARM) by a score of 7-0.
Joergensen requires two matches to emerge with bronze. He will greet Oleg Khalilov (UKR) in the first round of repechage before squaring off against either Galustyan or Nad in the third-place match.
Kure Returns, Mukubu Falls, & Marvik DQ’d
Following nearly six months of intense rehabilitation on his injured neck, Per-Anders Kure (77 kg) was back in action on Saturday but was on the wrong end of a 3-2 decision loss to Albin Olofsson (SWE). Olofsson was defeated by German Deni Nakaev in the next round to eliminate Kure from the competition. Elsewhere at 77 for Norway, Sebastian Aak got off to a promising start by flattening Johnny Bur (FRA) ahead of falling to tough Finnish wrestler Jonni Sarkkinen 6-3.
’22 U23 World Champion Exauce Mukubu (87 kg), who just two weeks ago ran the table at the Wladyslaw Pytlasinski Memorial, went one-and-done in Germany as he was surprised by familiar Ramon Betschart (SUI) 3-2 in the round-of-16.
It was not a banner day for ’21 World bronze Oskar Marvik (130 kg), either, although it did begin with a VSU over Svetoslav Kalashnikov (UKR). But in the proceeding round, Marvik and ’15 World bronze Aleksander Chernetskyy (UKR) were heating up when — with :12 remaining in the first period — Marvik was cited for unsportsmanlike conduct and disqualified.
Sunday’s Schedule
Wrestling resumes at 10:30am (4:30ET in the US) with the repechage rounds for each weight category. The finals and medal matches are not split into a separate session. The link to watch live can be found here.
2023 Grand Prix of Germany
August 12-13 — Dortmund, GER
TEAM NOR DAY 1 RESULTS
67 kg
Haavard Joergensen
LOSS Kyotaru Sogabe (JPN) 6-6 (criteria)
vs. Oleg Khalilov (UKR)
77 kg
Sebastian Aak
WON Johnny Bur (FRA) via fall
LOSS Jonni Sarkkinen (FIN) 6-3
Per-Anders Kure
LOSS Albin Olofsson 5-2
87 kg
Exauce Mukubu
LOSS Ramon Betschart (SUI) 3-2
97 kg
Felix Baldauf
WON Metehan Basar (TUR) via injury default
WON Sergey Omelin (UKR) 10-6
WON Mathias Bak (DEN) 5-2
WON Lucas Lazogianis (GER) 3-0
vs. Markus Ragginger (AUT)
130 kg
Oskar Marvik
WON Svetoslav Kalashnikov (UKR) 8-0, TF
LOSS Aleksandr Chernetskyy (UKR) via DQ
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