Japanese wrestler Kaori Icho made it look as though winning her 10th world title was a breeze.
Americans Helen Maroulis and Adeline Gray were nearly as dominant in giving the US their first two gold medals of the world championships.
Icho cruised to her 10th world title on Thursday night, joining teammate Saori Yoshida (13) as the only women with double-digit titles.
Photo: EPA
Icho beat Finland’s Petra Olli 10-0 in the 58kg final for her 158th consecutive win in major international competition.
Asked why the pair is so good, Icho said: “We like the practice.”
Icho and Yoshida both have three Olympic gold medals as well. They will leave Las Vegas as the prohibitive favorites for next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Photo: EPA
The US have never won Olympic gold in women’s freestyle, but now they have two serious contenders to break that streak.
Maroulis won her first world title in the 55kg catergory, while Gray won for the third time in four years by defeating Qian Zhou of China 13-2 in the 75kg category.
Maroulis cruised to the final with a 5-0 win over China’s Qianyu Pang. Maroulis then jumped ahead of Irina Ologonova with a takedown in less than 20 seconds and at one point ran the Russian off the mat.
Maroulis, who won a silver and bronze medal in the past, but never gold, closed out an 11-0 win in 4 minutes, 29 seconds.
“After getting bounced out in the semi-finals the last two years, I knew something had to change,” Maroulis said.
Gray was dominant in the early rounds, outscoring her opponents 36-2. Brazil’s Aline Da Silva, who Gray beat for the world title last year, nearly pinned Gray with 2 minutes left in their semi-final, but Gray responded with a takedown a few seconds later to seal a 10-2 win.
Gray fell behind 2-0 in the final before dominating the second period and clinching the win on technical superiority.
“I should start every match letting her take me down, because then I start to wrestle,” Gray said.
Mongolian Battsetseg Soronzonbold pinned Japan’s Risako Kawai in 36 seconds in the women’s 63kg final.
Italy’s Frank Chamizo Marquez beat Uzbekistan’s Ikhtiyor Navruzov to win the men’s 65kg title and become the first Italian world champion in freestyle.
Chamizo Marquez’s title was the one American Bret Metcalf had hoped would finally be his, but the world’s No. 2 in the 65kg class could not survive a tough draw on his side of the bracket.
Metcalf survived a compelling early challenge from China’s Katal Yeerlanbieke. Both wrestlers struggled to stand at various points and Metcalf was nearly taken down, but the clock and his technique helped see him to an exhausting 5-3 win.
An unlucky draw saw Metcalf get No. 1 Sayed Mohammad of Iran in the round of 16, where a worn-out Metcalf lost 5-4.
“I lost to a good opponent and you have to put that on me to get better and figure it out,” said Metcalf, who still looks like a good prospect for a medal in Rio.
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