FILA JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS U.S. earns 4 medals
By Jason Bryant PATTAYA, Thailand – The United
States finished with four medals at September’s FILA Junior World Championships.
Pat Downey turned in the top finish
after capturing a silver medal for the U.S. in freestyle wrestling. Here are the recaps of the four medal- winning performances for the United States:
Freestyle Pat Downey was the lone U.S. medalist
in men’s freestyle competition at the 2012 FILA Junior World Championships at the Eastern Sports Training Center. Downey wound up with the silver medal after losing to Iran’s
Mohammadjavad Ebrahimi 1-2, 1-0, 4-0 in the finals. “It’s bittersweet,” said Downey. “Like I said earlier, I’m still the first loser, but I felt like I wrestled tough the whole tourna- ment. It’s the toughest tournament I’ve ever been to and every match is a fight. You have to figure out a way to win and I did a real good job of that up until the last match.
“I can’t help but to still be happy with the silver,” said Downey.
Downey struck first in the final, dou-
bling off of a single leg to score the first takedown, and a 1-0 lead. Ebrahimi bat- tled back and scored with under 30 sec- onds remaining in the first, but Downey again attacked and earned a takedown on a scramble he created with five sec- onds remaining.
In the second, the two battled for 119 seconds without a score until Ebrahimi earned a pushout and the second-period win with just one tick left on the clock. In the third, Ebrahimi countered every hurried Downey attempt to win 4-0 and earn gold. “He’s a kid that every time he’s in the room, he works hard,” said USA Wrestling Developmental Freestyle Coach Bill Zadick. “He’s exciting and likes to wrestle. He’s a real competitor. I appreciate that about him.”
Downey stormed into the finals at 84 kg/185 lbs. after three victories on the top side of the championship bracket. The 2011 USA Wrestling Junior National freestyle champion spent the last year liv-
34 USA Wrestler
Pat Downey captured a silver medal at the Junior World Championships.
ing at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
He opened with a 1-1, 0-1, 3-0 win over Evgheni Eremiev of Moldova, before dominating Korea’s Hyeok-Beom Gwon 3-1, 3-1.
In the semifinals, Downey cruised past a lethargic Vahe Tamrazyan of Armenia, scoring pushouts almost at will in a 4-2, 6-0 victory. Tamrazyan was cautioned twice for fleeing the mat during the match. Downey finished off the second period with a strong two-point gutwrench. Women’s freestyle
Alli Ragan and Erin Golston won bronze medals for the U.S. in women’s freestyle wrestling.
Ragan earned her second medal at 63 kg/138.75 lbs.
“I wanted the gold of course, but I’ll
take any medal,” said Ragan. “I guess at the end of the day, you have to be happy with what you get and build upon what you didn’t do.” After losing in the quarterfinals, Ragan had to play the waiting game. But once given new life Ragan opened up her offense and came away with her second Junior World bronze medal after pinning Tetyana Lavrenchuk of Ukraine. Ragan won the first period 1-0 after winning the ball draw and scoring from the tie-breaking leg clinch starting posi-
tion. In the second, she caught her oppo- nent’s momentum and threw a headlock, sending Lavrenchuk to the mat. The offi- cials called for the fall at 50 seconds into the second period.
Golston topped Kazakhstan’s Aidana Utegulova 3-0, 3-0 in her bronze-medal match at 44 kg/97 lbs. She captured her second Junior World bronze medal. “It definitely feels good to get another medal,” said Golston. “It wasn’t the color I wanted, but I’ll come back next year.” Golston wrestled her last two years of high school in Marquette, Mich., at Marquette Senior High School and trained at the U.S. Olympic Education Center at Northern Michigan University. Golston reached the semifinals after picking up a 1-0, 3-0 win over China’s Liqiong Xiu and a marathon 0-1, 1-0, 1-0 win over Madalina Linguraru of Romania. Greco-Roman
In three previous trips to the FILA Junior World Championships, Jesse Thielke had never won a match. That finally changed this year as Thielke won four matches en route to capturing a bronze medal finish at 60 kg/132 lbs.
Thielke earned a 1-0, 1-0 victory over Ramunas Dagys of Lithuania, scoring a first-period takedown and scoring a point by defending in par terre to earn bronze. After a disappointing and controversial loss to Ramin Taheri of Iran in the semifi- nals, Thielke regained his composure. “It felt good to win my first match,” said a relieved Thielke. “There’s nothing I can do about the judge’s call in the Iran match, I mean, I made it to the World semis, that’s nothing to be ashamed of.” Against Taheri, Thielke fell behind
early, but rallied with a takedown and a late exposure to bring the score within 3- 2 in the final seconds of the first. Coach Ike Anderson threw the challenge brick at the close of the period, asking for two points on the exposure. After two views from the jury of the video, the jury appeared to award Thielke two points, which would have won him the period. But officials not part of the jury reviewed the video once again and held with the initial call despite the jury award- ing two points, and the period, to Thielke. Taheri would win 3-2, 1-0.
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