Nineteen-year-old Ohio State wrestler Kyle Snyder did not win a Big Ten or an NCAA title last season.
A world championship will have to suffice.
Snyder completed a stunning run on Friday through the world championships in Las Vegas, beating Russian Abdulsalam Gadisov at 97kg to become the youngest winner at worlds in US history.
Photo: EPA
Fellow 19-year-old Russian Abdulrashid Sadulaev won his second consecutive world title, beating Turkey’s Selim Yasar 6-0 at 86kg.
Oksana Herhel of Ukraine won in women’s 60kg freestyle, and Azerbaijan’s Haji Aliyev took home the world title in men’s 61kg.
American Leigh Jaynes-Provisor surprisingly won a bronze medal at 60kg.
However, it is Snyder who has emerged as the story of the tournament. Snyder, who lost to Penn State’s Morgan McIntosh in the Big Ten final, is taking a redshirt season from the Buckeyes in what seemed to be a long-shot attempt to qualify for the Rio Games.
Snyder had shown tremendous improvement since his NCAA season ended in March though, and he entered Las Vegas as a dark horse medal candidate.
Now he is the prohibitive favorite to represent the US in Brazil.
Snyder showed wisdom beyond his age by successfully defending a challenge from Abbas Tahan of Iran while he was on the shot clock, drawing a caution point to secure his semi-finals match.
Snyder and Gadisov both scored five points, but Snyder won the final because he had more two-point moMany in the wrestling community have begun to wonder whether Sadulaev — and not American Jordan Burroughs — is the best pound-for-pound wrestler in the world.
Sadulaev certainly made his case with the brilliant series of matches on Friday.
Sadulaev did not get scored on until the semi-finals — at one point cartwheeling over his opponent to escape danger — and did not need the full six minutes until he beat Iranian Alireza Karimimachiani 6-2.
Sadulaev was barely tested in the finals by Yasar, who can take solace in the fact that he was not pinned.
Despite being pinned just 18 seconds into her semi-finals match, Friday was still a big day for Jaynes-Provisor at 60kg, a non-Olympic weight. Jaynes-Provisor, 34, was not even ranked heading into the tournament, and she missed time this summer after she and her husband, US wrestler Ben Provisor, were involved in a car accident on Father’s Day.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS