Darryl Christian places fourth at German Grand Prix of Greco-Roman

Darryl Christian (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) placed fourth at 74 kg/163 lbs., the top U.S. performance at the Germany Grand Prix of Greco-Roman wrestling in Dortmund, Germany, July 19-20. Christian won his first four matches, capturing two bouts in his pool, then two bouts in the championship bracket. In the pool, Christian stopped Rene Zimmerman of Germany, 4-0 and Ahmed Mohamdy of Egypt, 3-0. In the preliminary round, he got by Danil Khalimov of Kazakhstan at 6:24 in overtime. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Lars Levermann of Germany, 9-3. Christian was edged in the semifinals by Konstantin Schneider of Germany 5-4, then dropped a 5-0 match to Igor Balauri of France in the bronze-medal match. Brandon McNab (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) placed eighth at 74 kg/163 lbs. McNab opened with three straight wins, moving out of his pool into the championship bracket. His third win was an overtime decision over Rados Truszkowski of Poland, 3-2. McNab was eliminated by Konstantin Schneider of Germany, 3-0. Three U.S. wrestlers placed ninth in their weight divisions: Lindsey Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 55 kg/121 lbs., Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) at 60 kg/132 lbs. and Mark Rial (Colorado Springs, Colo./Unattached) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. Of the three, Rial was the only to win his pool and advance to the championship bracket. Eduard Aplevich of Belarus eliminated Rial from medal contention, 9-1. The webpage for the German Grand Prix is: http://www.gp-ringen-dortmund.de