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.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
RSS