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41 points. Japan won the title with 55 points and Russia was second with 48 points. “We had a very good performance,”
Steiner said. “We wrestled with heart and intensity. We were very close to winning five medals, and we wrestled well. We can definitely build on this performance.” Pirozhkova now has four World medals – one gold, two silvers and one bronze. She becomes the fifth American woman to win four World medals. “I’m heartbroken for Elena,” Steiner said. “She had a very tough draw and wrestled great to get to the finals. She gave great effort and had a good tourna- ment. This one stings, but she can build from this going into next year and into the Olympic year.”
MEN’S FREESTYLE
Competing with a heavily wrapped left knee, Burroughs capped a courageous performance by winning a bronze medal. Burroughs suffered a left knee injury in his first match of the day, but still man- aged to win four of five matches. The final win was a first-period pin over Ukraine’s Rustam Dudaev in the bronze- medal freestyle bout at 74 kg/163 lbs. Burroughs is now a remarkable 92-2 in his international career.
Burroughs gave up the opening take- down against Dudaev before storming back with a strong attack to take a 7-2 lead. His final takedown put Dudaev on his back and Burroughs recorded a fall at the 2:48 mark of the first period. Burroughs’ run at a third straight World title was stopped in a 9-2 semifinal set- back to two-time World champion Denis Tsargush of Russia. Burroughs had beat- en 2009 and 2010 World champion Tsargush in the 2011 Worlds and 2012 Olympics.
“I’m not going home with what I want, which was gold, but I still got a bronze so I’m happy about that,” Burroughs said. “Obviously, I wasn’t the same (after the injury), but Tsargush was well-prepared. He’s a stud and he hasn’t won a World championship since 2010, so he’s been waiting for his shot to get back on top of the podium.
“I’ll be back next year for the Worlds in
Las Vegas. I’m not done yet.” Burroughs turned in a gutsy perform- ance just to reach the semifinals. Burroughs survived a huge scare in gaining a narrow 4-3 first-round win over Augusto Midana of Guinea Bisau. Burroughs injured his left knee late in the first period, but scored on a second-peri- od pushout to earn the win. Burroughs followed with a 13-2 win
8 USA Wrestler
Andy Bisek and his trademark moustache flew home with a Greco-Roman bronze medal from the World Championships. Jason Bryant photo.
2014 Team USA World medalists
WOMEN’S FREESTYLE
Gold - Adeline Gray, 75 kg/165 lbs. Silver - Elena Pirozhkova, 63 kg/138.75 lbs Bronze - Helen Maroulis, 55 kg/121 lbs.
MEN’S FREESTYLE
Bronze - Jordan Burroughs, 74 kg/163 lbs. Bronze - Tervel Dlagnev, 125 kg/275 lbs.
GRECO-ROMAN Bronze - Andy Bisek, 75 kg/165 lbs.
over Korea’s Yun-Seok Lee in the second round. Burroughs then earned a gritty 5-0 win over 2013 World bronze medalist Rashid Kurbanov of Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals. American Tervel Dlagnev scored a first- period takedown en route to edging 2011 World champion Alexei Shemarov of Belarus 2-1 in the freestyle wrestling bronze bout at 125 kg/275 lbs. Dlagnev won his second World bronze medal after placing third at the 2009 Worlds.
“I knew I had to get out quickly, get my
points and stay in the fight,” Dlagnev said. “I was real fired up to have another shot at a medal. I obviously wanted to win a gold medal and that’s what I trained for, but I’m so pumped to win a bronze medal.”
Dlagnev shot in on a single leg late in the first period and finished for a take- down against Shemarov in what turned out to be the difference in the match. Dlagnev lost to Shemarov in the 2011
World semifinals before beating him in the 2012 Olympic quarterfinals. “Tervel trained hard and worked hard,” U.S. coach Bruce Burnett said. “He’s a leader in the room and the type of guy you want on your team. I’m really, really happy for him. He earned it.” Dlagnev opened with a quick 11-1 tech- nical fall over Aleksandr Romanov of Moldova at 125 kg/275 lbs. Dlagnev blanked Slovakia’s Soslan Gagloev 5-0 in the second round.
Dlagnev then dropped a 4-2 decision to 2014 World bronze medalist and World No. 1 Taha Akgul of Turkey in the quarter- finals. He came right back to down Aslan Dzebisov of Azerbaijan 3-1 in the repechage.
The U.S. tied for ninth place in the
team standings in men’s freestyle. GRECO-ROMAN
Bisek rolled past Japan’s Hiroyuki Continued on page 9
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