The day after Beka Melelashvili (82 kg, NYAC) earned silver to give the United States their first-ever U23 World medalist, Billy Sullivan (55 kg, Army/WCAP), Payton Jacobson (87 kg, NMU/NTS), and Keith Miley (130 kg, Arkansas RTC) entered action Wednesday morning with their own chances to make the podium. It didn’t happen, for any of them, but the Americans still departed from Albania having put forth their best team performance in the history of the tournament.
The third and final day of Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2024 U23 World Championships began at 10:30am local time Wednesday in Tirana, Albania (4:30am ET) and streamed live on FLOWrestling.
All three athletes going on Wednesday were to start in the repechage round until Sullivan was the recipient of a forfeit from Cristopher Aguilar (COL), which deposited him directly into the bronze match where he met up with Kohei Yamagiwa. Amid playback in the ties, Yamagiwa was able to unfurl an arm throw that scored four, though Sullivan had appeared to reverse position soon after impact. The US challenged to see if a point was missed by the officials — but upon review, the call stood and Japan carried a 5-0 lead. Later in the period, Sullivan lasered a short drag to go behind but lost his footing and Yamagiwa spun around to collect two more points. With time running out in the opening frame, Yamagiwa clamped for a front headlock and executed the hold to net four points. Sullivan ambled up and out for a reversal on the back-end of the sequence, but the contest was over at 11-1 and Yamagiwa had clinched the bronze medal.
Jacobson & Miley
For Jacobson — who won two impressive bouts on Tuesday before being edged by eventual champ from Russia Aues Gonibov (AIN), repechage delivered an equally-challenging contest opposite Ilya Mialeshchyk (AIN). Mialeschyk was defeated by Gonibov prior to Jacobson (hence how repechage functions), but the Belarusian’s general skill-set could not be discounted.
At least not until Jacobson started piecing Mialeschyk up and out-pummeling him to garner the first passive chance. Both athletes took a little stroll around the circle upon the whistle before Jacobson pointed towards Mialeschyk’s position for par terre bottom, as Mialeschyk had not set properly. After that adjustment, the whistle blew and Jacobson acquired his lock. He was looking for a gutwrench, struggled to find kick-off traction, and quickly changed direction to rotate. It was a sound decision, but Jacobson’s lock collapsed, allowing Mialeschyk to escape. A short throw attempt saw Belarus land behind Jacobson and the score was 1-1. The US then challenged; the call was reviewed, the sequence upheld, and Mialeschyk’s point was wiped off the board. Following the reset, Jacobson operated with a left underhook and transitioned to a body attack towards the boundary that resulted in a land-on-top four. Another reset, and once again Jacobson was in on the body. It was his second successful attack entry of the match and fourth of the tournament. He wrapped Mialeschyk tightly and his execution netted a step-out point.
It was 6-0 for Jacobson heading into Period 2. Simply due to the oft predictable manner in which passivities are levied, the expectation was that Mialeschyk would be granted a courtesy par terre opportunity. Only, the officials could not do that in this match. Jacobson’s sustained and purposeful pressure left the referee with little choice other than to cite Mialeschyk for passivity a second time. Jacobson’s follow-up from par terre top did not invite additional points — but up 7-0, he also would not be stopped. The onus was on Mialeschyk to score, yet Jacobson was the one who pushed the issue through the remainder and thus exited the match as the 7-0 victor.
The bronze-medal round presented reigning U23 World Champion (at 82 kg) and multi-time age-group medalist Asan Zhanyshov (KGZ). A wiry and explosive wrestler, Zhanyshov eagerly checked into the ties against Jacobson and found for himself a willing dance partner. The pair jousted from the center and then towards the outer circle, with both threatening for step-outs. In one instance, Jacobson had appeared close to backing off the line until he, in a flash, changed course by circling back inside and nearly provoking Zhanyshov to surrender a point. Their static soon stabilized, particularly when they became entangled at the arms, and passivity was introduced. Zhanyshov was the beneficiary of the call and his lock yielded two points. Back standing, and Zhanyshov used a left underhook/right overhook to convert a lateral drop that scored four points. He followed with one gutwrench rotation to force a halt to the contest in conjunction with having earned U23 World bronze.
Jacobson, who officially placed 5th, went 3-2 at the U23 World Championships with 15 offensive points scored (18 points overall) and an average margin of victory (AMV) of 5.6 points.
Miley Decisioned by GEO
Miley had prevailed in his first match of the tournament over Tomasz Wawrzynczyk (POL) due in large part to a beautiful arm throw. In the repechage round, Miley was on the short end of a 5-0 decision to U23 Euro bronze Giorgi Tsopurashvili (GEO) in part because of the same maneuver — except it was his opponent who executed.
Upon the whistle, Miley extended his arms to pressure Tsopurashvili. When he did so again, Tsopurashvili was waiting with a very crisp arm attack and, suddenly, Miley was staring at a 4-0 deficit. He settled down after that, did Miley, and experienced little to no difficulty when defending against Tsopurashvili from par terre bottom. It was a 5-0 margin for Georgia in the second period and Miley was doing what he could to create potentially gainful movement. However, passivity was pocketed by the officials in the frame and there was no further scoring in the match. Miley, in his World Championships debut, finished in 12th place.
Big Step Forward for US Program
As mentioned (and reported) previously, the United States had their most successful and productive showing at the U23 World Championships since the event was first introduced in the fall of ’17.
Prior to the ’24 U23 World Championships:
— The most combined individual wins recorded by an American roster at a U23 World Championships was five — which was accomplished three consecutive times leading to this year’s event (’21, ’22, and ’23). Team USA combined for 12 individual match victories in ’24.
— Only one American Greco-Roman wrestler had ever advanced to the semifinal round at the tournament, which was Taylor LaMont in ’21.
— LaMont was also the first and only American, before Melelashvili, to compete in a U23 World medal match (LaMont would eventually finish 5th). In ’24, three Americans appeared in U23 World medal matches (Sullivan, 55 kg bronze round; Melelashvili, 82 kg final; and Jacobson, 87 kg bronze round).
— Only one American had recorded a win via technical fall at a U23 World tournament (Cohlton Schultz over Jonovan Smith of Puerto Rico in ’22). Team USA recorded four wins by way of technical fall in ’24.
Additional U23 World Championships Notes
— The US finished the ’24 U23 World Championships in 10th place with 40 points — five behind Uzbekistan and Germany (40) and five more than Japan (35). Iran won the team title with 149 points (three champs, four bronze, one 5th-place wrestler), far in front of 2nd place Georgia (121). Armenia wound up in 3rd place with 93 points.
— The total combined individual match record for Team USA at the ’24 U23 World Championships was 12-13. Four wins were recorded via technical fall, seven were won by decision, and one victory was attained by forfeit.
— The two USA athletes who were making their debuts at a World-level event both won their first matches in the tournament. Hunter Garvin (77 kg, IA) had prevailed over Karan Karan (IND, 9-1 VSU) and, as mentioned, Miley had defeated Wawrzynczyk (5-3).
— Aside from those who were pulled back into the tournament via repechage (Sullivan, Jacobson, and Miley), three other Americans had lost to eventual bronze medalists. Nihad Guluzade (60 kg, AZE), who defeated Max Black (NMU/NTS); Mairbek Salimov (63 kg, POL), who had gotten past Jonathan Gurule (NYAC/NTS); and Seyed Shamsollah Sohrabi (72 kg, IRI), who defeated Justus Scott (Army/WCAP).
2024 U23 World Championships
October 21-23 — Tirana, ALB
TEAM USA FULL RESULTS
55 kg: Billy Sullivan (Army/WCAP) — 5th
WON Dieymer Amundaray (VEN) 18-10, TF
LOSS Rashad Mammadov (AZE) 12-4, TF
WON Cristopher Verastegui Aguilar (VEN) via forfeit
LOSS Kohei Yamagiwa (JPN) 11-1, TF
60 kg: Max Black (NMU/NTS) — 16th
LOSS Nihad Guluzade (AZE) 9-0, TF
63 kg: Jonathan Gurule (NYAC/NTS) — 20th
LOSS Mairbek Salimov (POL) 9-0, TF
67 kg: Robert Perez (NYAC) — 16th
WON Nestor Almanza Truyol (CHI) 3-3 (criteria)
LOSS Haruto Yabe (JPN) 8-0, TF
72 kg: Justus Scott (Army/WCAP) — 25th
LOSS Seyed Shamsollah Sohrabi (IRI) 10-1, TF
77 kg: Hunter Garvin (IA) — 12th
WON Karan Karan (IND) 9-1, TF
LOSS Doniyorkhan Nakibov (UZB) 7-1
82 kg: Beka Melelashvili (NYAC) — SILVER
WON Daniel Bello Vega (VEN) 9-0, TF
WON Vadzim Paleyenka (AIN) 12-7
WON Data Chkhaidze (GEO) 5-2
WON Elmin Aliyev (AZE) 3-3 (criteria)
LOSS Mohammad Naghousi (IRI) 4-3
87 kg: Payton Jacobson (NMU/NTS) — 5th
WON Tomislav Brkan (CRO) 3-1
WON Yudai Kobori (JPN) 8-0, TF
LOSS Aues Gonibov (AIN) 3-1
WON Ilya Mialeshchyk (AIN) 7-0
LOSS Asan Zhanyshov (KGZ) 9-0, TF
97 kg: Wyatt Voelker (Panther WC RTC) — 16th
LOSS Christos Chatsatourov (GRE) 6-4
130 kg: Keith Miley (Arkansas RTC) — 12th
WON Tomasz Wawrzynczyk (POL) 5-3
LOSS Dmitri Baboryko (AIN) 8-0, TF
LOSS Giorgi Tsopurashvili (GEO) 5-0
Listen to “5PM57: Kamal Bey and David Stepanyan” on Spreaker.
Listen to “5PM56: Rich Carlson and Spencer Woods” on Spreaker.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FIVE POINT MOVE PODCAST
iTunes | Stitcher | Spreaker | Google Play Music
