Japan’s Saori Yoshida won her 16th world or Olympic freestyle title on Wednesday night at the world wrestling championships.
The most decorated athlete in wrestling history, the 32-year-old Yoshida won her 13th title at worlds — to go with three Olympic golds in as many tries — by beating Sweden’s Sofia Mattsson 2-1 in the 53kg catergory.
Yoshida rallied after trailing 1-0 after the first period. She has only lost twice in international events, but that did not stop her from breaking down after yet another world crown.
Photo: EPA
“I was very worried because everyone was chasing me,” Yoshida said through a team translator as dozens of Japanese reporters swarmed around her. “It was a good one.”
Yoshida’s 22-year-old teammate, Erin Tosaka, won her third consecutive world title in the 48kg category by beating Mariya Stadnyk of Azerbaijan 3-2 on a takedown with less than 10 seconds left.
Ukraine’s Zhan Beleniuk won the 85kg Greco-Roman title in dominant fashion. He flipped Uzbekistan’s Rustam Assakalov to the mat for a four-point throw — a move wrestling officials would love to see more often — and won 6-0.
Photo: EPA
Natalia Vorobeva pinned Feng Zhou of China to win the 69kg crown.
Though the US team is traditionally far better at men’s freestyle than women’s and Greco-Roman, the hope was that home-mat advantage would help them ahead of next year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
So far, the worlds have been a borderline disaster for the US.
Three days into the six-day meet, the US had qualified for Olympic spots in just two of nine weight categories.
Alyssa Lampe, a two-time world medalist, was beaten 10-0 in the 48kg quarter-finals.
Whitney Conder was defeated in her second match in the 53kg category and past world champion Elena Pirozhkova, ranked eighth entering the tournament, was beaten in the second round by Sweden’s Jenny Fransson in the 69kg class.
“I just felt great. I’ve had great training. It’s just the little things that kind of got away from me throughout the match,” Pirozhkova said.
Jordan Holm, the final US Greco-Roman wrestler to compete, scored just a point in his opening-round loss in the 85kg catergory.
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