Although two of their wrestlers achieved wins on Saturday morning, the United States squad was unable to advance an athlete into the afternoon’s semifinal round. Two others had second chances when action resumed today in Zagreb but both wound up on the outside-looking-in when it came to their pursuits for bronze.
Day 3 of the 2025 World Championships began at 10:30am local time from Zagreb, Croatia (4:30am ET) and is streaming live in the US on FLOWrestling.
Team USA had five competitors ready to go on Saturday: ’12 Olympian Ellis Coleman (63 kg, Army/WCAP), ’19 Junior World bronze Alston Nutter (67 kg, Army/WCAP), and ’24 Olympian Payton Jacobson (87 kg, NYAC/NTS) were making their first appearances in this year’s grand event, while Max Black (60 kg, NYAC/NTS) and ’20 Olympian Alex Sancho (72 kg, Army/WCAP) had received opportunities in their respective brackets’ repechage rounds after the duo had endured losses to eventual finalists on Friday.
Black — making his first-ever start at a Senior Worlds — was downed yesterday by two-time World bronze Aidos Sultangali (KAZ), who will battle for gold later today. In the opening repechage round this morning, Black recorded his first win at a Senior Worlds by decisioning ’23 U23 World bronze Melkamu Fetene (ISR) 5-1. That win put Black against Olympic medalist Ri Se-Ung (PRK), who walked away the 9-0 winner to end the American’s run to bronze.
Similarly, Sancho on Friday was felled in his lone match by finalist Ibrahim Ghanem (FRA). Sancho’s repechage bout today came against tough Armenian Gor Khachatryan, who prevailed via 6-1 decision.
Coleman, Nutter, & Jacobson
But it was a clean slate for Coleman, Nutter, and Jacobson, and each had challenging opposition with which to deal.
Coleman was lights-out in his opener as he dismantled Moamen Mohamed (EGY) via 10-2 VSU. Coleman couldn’t have looked sharper and more fluid as he got moving quickly with a four-pointer (though Mohamed picked up two on the back-end of the sequence) and closed it out soon after thanks to another volley of scores. But in the round-of-16, Azatjan Achilov (TKM) disrupted Coleman’s latest journey for World hardware.
Coleman received the first passivity/par terre chance but could not negotiate a turn with his elbow-to-elbow gutwrench. After a reset, Coleman held too long on a front headlock attempt and got extended, a position of which Achilov took advantage by popping to the body and uncorking a throw. A challenge came from the US corner, but the review favored Achilov, who assumed a 5-1 lead. In the second period, and trailing by a score of 7-1, Coleman hurriedly worked the ties in order to gain a sound position from which to work; however, his efforts were futile, as the officials cited him for passivity — a maddening call for the US given the circumstances. Coleman defended from bottom but a last-gasp try at a “Flying Squirrel” — the technique that Coleman himself long ago innovated — resulted in Achilov coming away with four more points to end the match just one second prior to the final whistle. Achilov was defeated in the next round by Vitalie Eriomenco (MDA) to thwart Coleman from becoming eligble to compete in tomorrow’s repechage round.
Nutter was forced to contend with ’19 European Championships bronze Dominik Etlinger (CRO), whose most pronounced weapon is discerned from top par terre. This is not a secret. For as common as it is for other countries to count top PT as a strength, it is indeed Etlinger’s specialty and he is quite formidable in that position.
Nutter found little trouble in generating motion and meaningful static once the feeling-out process commenced but passivity benefited the popular Croatian, who acquired his lock and ran a succession of gutwrenches to secure victory. And Etlinger would go on to score another impressive win in the next round as he disposed of Valentin Petic (MDA); however, Razzak Beishekeev (KGZ) halted Etlinger’s hunt for gold in the quarterfinal, which eliminated Nutter from appearing in tomorrow’s repechage.
Jacobson Waits for Komarov
A promising start it was for Jacobson, who was like a locomotive against Karan Kamboj (IND). It all began with an arm attack that Jacobson used to spin behind for a takedown. He then immediately, and ferociously, followed with a string of gutwrenches to end matters early, thus cementing his first win at a Senior World-level tournament.
One round later, a rematch from Jacobson’s actual Senior World-level debut from last year. Standing across was highly-decorated Aleksander Komarov, who was an age-group dynamo for Russia prior to defecting to Serbia three years ago. Jacobson and Komarov met in the round-of-16 at the ’24 Paris Olympics. That match went to Komarov. This time around, Jacobson was certainly improved and prepared. He hustled Komarov constantly throughout the first period and walked into the break up 1-0. But Komarov would net five points in the second period (passivity point, gutwrench, lost challenge, and step-out) to advance to the quarterfinal round where he barely survived a 1-1 criteria nod against Islam Yevloyev (KAZ). Komarov will face Milad Aliraev (UWW/RUS) in the semifinal. If he prevails, Jacobson will compete in the repechage round tomorrow morning against Soh Sakabe (JPN).
The semifinals for Day 3 begin at 4:30pm local time from Zagreb, Croatia (10:30am ET) and can be viewed live in the US on FLOWrestling.
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
