Soooo, I guess we get a wrestle-off now? Irie was defeated by Yanan Sun (China) in the quarter-finals, Wu was then defeated by Stadnik (who Susaki destroyed lol) and Irie had no chance to medal now. Interesting. I think it makes it a bit easier to choose; we now Susaki would have won gold this year.We'll see but Irie has lost to Vinesh from India twice at Asian championships in the last couple of years. So I wouldn't call her a lock for gold, maybe close to a lock to medal which would suck if she gets a bronze and freezes Susaki out of the team... they'll have to come up with a way to break their selection rules maybe
57 is a very deep weight class but I don’t think it necessarily has the barrier of entries at the top like some of the other weight classes. There aren’t any Sadulaev, Burroughs, Yazdani, Akgul, Dake, etc. types. So while it’s deep, I could see Micic making a deep run if he gets hot. He certainly has the talent imo.
even though I was rooting for her to lose and crash out of the tournament, gotta feel a little for Irie, her big chance and it was her birthday too which now coincides with the 'day I failed at my life's goal' (well, I guess she could still win their play off but... it must also suck to have everyone probably including your team staff secretly hoping you don't lol)
It must be a tough situation for her.. but we all (well, excluding you lol) wanted Susaki in there. I can't remember the last time somebody won the 3 world championships in between the Olympics and Susaki was close to it, Risako Kawai will probably get it.I think the winner of their national championships at the end of the year is ultimately selected in any class that doesn't medal at the worlds.
Hey, it's only fate that Susaki is the team star of Japan's star team at Tokyo...
well, Irie still did better then ya girl Orshush.... was always going to be tough for Orsh but losing to Ecuador isn't a 'hold your head high' moment.
I didn't see their Greco guys, I usually like to watch the Japanese wrestlers because they have a fun style, but Greco is the opposite of fun to watch, not sure if they manage to make it fun regardless. That said the few bits of Greco I did watch seemed miles better than the last couple of years...
). So I dunno what we'll see from her here but she is in a smaller bracket (non-olympic weight) so I'd expect a medal.
Honestly, Russia should move our nationals back and send our guys to Yasar Dogu or some other tournaments to avoid such ridiculous seeding lol. I want to see these matches, just not in the first matches..
Kind of a fantasy matchup right now - but Sidakov vs. Dake in 2020 would be an interesting matchup. This assumes Dake dethrones JB at 74 at the Oly trials (which I personally think is likely).
