Kamal Bey apparently wasn’t in the mood to play around.
The Illinois native and current Olympic Training Center athlete stomped through the Black Diamond Junior Greco Roman Cup in Dorog, Hungary over the weekend. Wrestling at 74 kg, Bey exacted utter domination on all four of his opponents. In fact, not a single one made it out of the first period. This could best be described as a situation where a talented wrestler finds his “zone” and just can’t be touched. It happens. Especially when Bey is lighting it up.
To nail down his gold medal, Kamal Bey had to face Tamas Levai (HUN), a tough competitor in his own right who has competed in the World Cadet Championships (and a couple of years ago was wrestling at 50 kg). Just as in the previous three matches, the Fargo champ took it right to his opponent, scoring off of inside control before a lift gave way to his controlling of Levai’s body to secure the fall.
Bey had an impressive showing last month at the Dave Schultz Memorial (finishing 4th), so picking up a win in a tournament like this (and to do so convincingly) is a nice way to keep things moving as the future appears bright for both him and the program as a whole. If the US can keep cultivating young talent like Kamal Bey, it sets things up very nicely for the next Olympic cycle, providing the US squad with solid up-and-comers who know what international competition looks like.
Peyton Omania had himself a solid day also, as the Californian captured a silver medal. In his first match, Omania defeated Petr Peck (ROU) 6-0; in the quarterfinal, it was a 6-3 win over Zoltan Sebestyan (HUN); and the semis provided the highest score of the day for Omania, as he took a 10-7 decision heading into the final, where he fell 7-2 to Bence Balatoni (HUN).
Top image: USA Wrestling