Sesker World Championships Blog: Final thoughts on final day in Tashkent

Sept. 14

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – Here are a few random thoughts in my final blog as we enter the final day of the  2014 World Championships:

Tashkent has taken a toll on us physically. The local cuisine has not agreed with many of us. Luckily, Dr. Bernie Feldman of the USA has hooked a lot of us up with various pills to help us cope with that. It’s been rough.

The smog and pollution here also has many of us hacking and coughing in our final days here. Fortunately, we are scheduled to fly out of town early Monday morning.

The long days and short nights of covering a massive, seven-day event like this also can wear you down physically and mentally.

The taxi drivers here are crazy. Stoplights and lines on the highway are merely a suggestion. Like most cabbies, these dudes are in a big hurry. The good news is you get to your destination quickly, unless they get lost, and the fares are relatively cheap. It’s funny seeing what music they play in the cabs. We’ve heard everything from Frank Sinatra and Madonna to Michael Jackson and Fifty Cent.

Greco-Roman Team leader Christina “Kiki” Kelly has been amazing and it’s been fun to get to know her on this trip. She is having a huge impact on the sport internationally, after she gained an abundance of attention and exposure for being our World Cup Team Leader in Iran.

The monetary system here is ridiculous and interesting. 1,000 dollars of Uzbek money is worth about 33 cents U.S. We’ve been walking around with huge rolls of cash in our bags and pockets.

My boss, Gary Abbott, is a workhorse. It seems like the guy never sleeps. He is the hardest working person in the sport. Kudos to him for being as passionate about wrestling as anyone I know. Gary says he will sing Karaoke in the place next door to the hotel if any U.S. wrestler wins a gold medal today.

I love asking U.S. Assistant Coach Momir Petkovic what’s new. You never hear the same response twice. He’s a character who always makes me laugh on these long, grueling overseas journeys.

I can’t wait to get home and hug my daughter, eat a big juicy steak, brush my teeth with tap water and sleep in my big, soft bed.

I’m looking forward to the 2015 World Championships in Las Vegas. It will be a great event!

Go USA!

Sept. 13

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – It’s only been seven years since the U.S. won the World team title in Greco-Roman wrestling.

But it had been five long years since an American had won a World medal in Greco.

That changed when Andy Bisek turned in a phenomenal performance to earn a bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships on Friday.

Bisek knocked off Olympic and World champion Roman Vlasov of Russia in the second round. Bisek is a very capable wrestler, but very few people thought this was even possible.

Bisek countered a lift attempt by the explosive Vlasov midway through the match, coming down on top of Vlasov and catching him on his back. Bisek had an excellent opportunity to score a fall, but the wrestlers were ruled out of bounds.

Bisek trailed 5-2 late in the match before staging a furious and improbable rally. Bisek scored a pair of one-point turns to close the gap to 5-4. Vlasov then went up 6-4 when a U.S. challenge failed.

With time running out, and the Russian clearly tired, Bisek powered in for a takedown with five seconds left to win the match 6-6 on criteria.

It was a huge, huge win for our Greco program.

It would have been exciting to see Bisek score the fall, but the way it played out worked even better. Nobody can call this win a fluke. Bisek beat the Russian and earned every bit of that win.

It was the biggest U.S. Greco win since American Dremiel Byers advanced to the World finals in 2009.

Bisek’s win brought back memories of other historic Greco wins over Russia, most notably Rulon Gardner’s stunning 2000 Olympic win over three-time Olympic champion Alexander Karelin and Garrett Lowney’s 2000 Olympic win over five-time World champion Gogi Gogouoashvili.

Bisek went on to win a bronze medal with a very impressive performance at 75 kg/165 lbs.

The 28-year-old Bisek will be known for more than his trademark moustache now. Much more. He’s a damn good wrestler who built some much-needed momentum as we move closer to the next Olympic Games.

Bisek also continues the impressive run by Minnesota wrestlers in Greco at the World and Olympic level.

Ran into U.S. assistant coach Momir Petkovic at breakfast this morning and asked him how he was doing.

“Much better!” Petkovic said with a smile.

Hopefully, Petkovic will keep smiling in the next two days of the Greco event.

Go USA!

Sept. 12

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – Adeline Gray is one of those special athletes.

A wrestler that knows how to compete and knows how to win when the stakes are highest.

That was evident when Gray turned in an amazing performance to capture her second World title on Thursday night.

Gray worked her way through a tough bracket to capture the title.

She came from behind in her first three matches en route to winning a very tough weight class to become the heavyweight champion of the World.

Gray is positioning herself to make a run at Olympic gold in 2016. She’s a hard-nosed wrestler who is never out of a match.

It was very cool to see her father, George Gray, make it to Tashkent for the event. George got his visa at the last minute and arrived in town just in time to see his daughter compete.

You won’t see a closer father-daughter relationship than the one the Grays share. Father taught daughter an arm bar at an early age and she’s been winning big matches with it ever since.

It was great seeing them share a long hug after Adeline advanced to the finals on Thursday afternoon. He’s had a huge impact on his daughter.

He was a proud papa once again. The flight back to his home in Denver won’t seem so long now.

Sept. 11

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – The days start early and the nights go late for Team USA during the World Championships.

So you obviously have to try and take care of yourself.

A typical day for me during the first three days of the event started with my iPhone alarm ringing at 5:45 a.m.

I shower, get dressed and head down to breakfast here in our hotel, the Asia Tashkent. It’s not a bad hotel. The shower has hot water (which isn’t always the case on an overseas trip) and the room actually has a fridge.

The beds are small and very hard, but I am usually so tired I could sleep on a slab of concrete by the end of the day.

My roommate, colleague Richard Immel, is usually my roommate on trips in the United States, so we have a routine in the morning where we can both get up and get moving. Richard puts up with my snoring and I put up with his talk about how great the Oklahoma football team is. He’s a good dude, and I really enjoy working with him.

Breakfast has been good. There is a variety of eggs, sausage, rice, noodles. Coffee is important for me to start the day. We have to be careful what we eat though. A number of us in our travel party, including me, have had bad reactions to the cuisine over here.

The group from Team USA in our hotel, which includes USA staff members and coaches, training partners and other support staff, jump on a bus at 7:45 a.m. to head to the venue.

We arrive at the arena and take our seats in the press tribune, located on the floor with an excellent view of the mats. Anyone watching the live webcast has probably seen us watching and working.

My role during the tournament is to write a recap story after each session, which means twice a day, with information on how our team did and with results and quotes from athletes and coaches.

I also pitch in with Twitter updates when Richard and our boss, Gary Abbott, are shooting video of matches.

The first couple of days were marathon sessions with four weight classes being contested on only three mats. In the past, three weight classes went per day on four mats.

The first session on Tuesday lasted nearly eight hours.

The finals started at 7 p.m. the first day, so we didn’t finish working until around 10 p.m. that day. We were inside the arena, without ever stepping outside, for more than 13 hours that day.

It’s a grind, but it’s great to be here. I never want to miss this event. And it’s a privilege to be able to cover this event for USA Wrestling.

We’ve won three bronze medals in the first three days. Now we need some gold today.

Go USA!

Sept. 10

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – The legend of Jordan Burroughs continues to grow.

Even when he doesn’t win gold.

A year ago, everyone was talking about the incredible performance at the 2013 World Championships when Burroughs won a gold medal less than a month after breaking his ankle.

Now he’s added another amazing chapter to his remarkable legacy.

Burroughs, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist and two-time World champion, injured his knee early in his first-round match of the 2014 World Championships.

And it didn’t look good. At all.

Burroughs called for injury time and walked off the mat, and actually was penalized a point for the timeout in what was a ridiculously stupid call by the referee.

Burroughs came back to edge a surprisingly tough opponent, Augusto Midana of Guinea Bisau, 4-3 in the opening bout at 74 kg/163 lbs.

Burroughs said after the competition that he had a sprained Medial Collateral Ligament in his left knee. Hopefully, it’s nothing worse than that after his doctors back in the U.S. check him out.

Burroughs came right back, with nearly his entire left leg heavily wrapped, to win his next two bouts to reach the semifinals.

Cleary not 100 percent physically, Burroughs dropped a 9-2 decision to two-time World champion Denis Tsargush in the semifinals. Burroughs had beaten 2009 and 2010 World champion Tsargush in the 2011 Worlds and 2012 Olympics.

Burroughs then came back in typical Burroughs fashion, earning a first-period fall over Ukraine’s Rustam Dudaev in the bronze-medal bout. He gave up the first takedown, but then showed he still had some of that trademark power and explosiveness in earning the impressive win.

It was one of the best performances you will ever see. That injury would’ve likely knocked a lot of wrestlers out of the tournament. But not Burroughs.

He’s one of the toughest, most determined wrestlers you will ever see. He’s obviously very gifted physically, but he’s also very smart, he’s coachable, he’s a workhorse in the room and he’s extremely tough mentally. That’s why he’s 92-2 on the Senior level. That’s an unbelievable record.

Just over three years ago, when he stepped on the mat for his first World Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, Burroughs was fresh out of college with virtually no freestyle experience on the Senior level.

And now check out the sparkling resume he has accumulated in a very short time.

Olympic gold medalist.

Two-time World champion.

American record 69 straight victories to start his international career.

Burroughs is a special athlete who is already a legend in our sport for all of his tremendous achievements.

But he’s also a class act who handles himself with dignity. He is articulate, engaging and funny. He has a strong faith. He’s a great ambassador to the sport who made great contributions in the 2013 fight to keep wrestling in the Olympic Games.

It was obvious that Burroughs was hindered by his injury, but during his post-match interview he offered no excuses and credited Tsargush for his performance.

And now he’s a husband and father to a baby boy he is eager to fly home and spend time with during a well-deserved break.

He’s also very adept with interviews and handling the media – the best I’ve ever worked with.

Burroughs treats people well and is very respectful. As he likes to say, “I’m really a nice guy.” Not many people are doubting that fact.

He’s an even better person than he is a wrestler. And that’s saying a heck of a lot.

Now an assistant coach at Nebraska, Burroughs will be a great role model for the young wrestlers on the Husker team to follow.

I can’t wait to see what happens next in his storybook career.

No matter what he does from here, Jordan Burroughs is one of the greatest wrestlers in American history. He didn’t win gold here in Tashkent, but he will always be a champion in my book.

Sept. 9

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – As most people have probably noticed, we smell and look a lot better, fresher and cleaner today.

Our luggage finally arrived late last night after being lost on our trip to Tashkent.

Huge kudos to colleague Jaimie McNab for going to the airport to snag our bags. The only bad part was she was the only of the five in our group whose bag wasn’t here.

I am trying not to come across too negatively with some of these entries, but it’s been very challenging on this trip. We received some other good news. They have Internet cables in the press tribune today and hopefully things will go smoothly as we try to get information back to the folks in the USA and around the World.

I had breakfast this morning with Larry Barnson, who is helping run next year’s World Championships in Las Vegas.

Larry has worked with USA Wrestling for years, helping primarily with the U.S. Open in Vegas.

The 2015 Worlds are going to be in the Orleans in Vegas, and it’s going to be a great event. It is from Sept. 7-12. Tickets go on sale later this month.

It will be a huge event for us, serving as the primary qualifier for the 2016 Olympic Games.

It’s an event you don’t want to miss.

Burroughs, Varner, Metcalf and Kennedy will be taking the mat here shortly. Let’s look for a big day!

Go USA!

Sept. 8

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – Our challenging trip brought more challenges again as the World Championships started on Monday.

Our first obstacle came when Gary Abbott, Richard Immel and I decided to take a taxi to the arena.

Our cab driver was a delightful guy who spoke a little bit of English. He pointed out a number of the sites in Tashkent on our ride through the city.

There was only one problem – he couldn’t find the arena. About 20 minutes into the drive, he pulled over to the side of the road, turned on his emergency flashing lights and got on the phone. He was lost.

After making a call, we started driving again. Luckily we spotted wrestling author Jamie Moffatt walking down the street and Jamie directed us toward the arena.

We hustled inside and grabbed our spots in the press tribune.

Then we had another big issue – the Internet wasn’t working. Not being able to get online is crippling to our communications operations, and it was not an enjoyable first session.

We came up with a solution to doing our Twitter updates. Richard and I texted results to colleague Ryan Johnson, who then posted them on Twitter from Colorado Springs. Ryan was also able to watch the live stream and did an excellent job with the updates.

We were able to get back online toward the end of the session, but the Internet is running very slow.

We will do our best to provide information and updates.

Tervel Dlagnev goes for bronze tonight before Olympic gold medalists Jordan Burroughs and Jake Varner take the mat tomorrow along with three-time World Team member Brent Metcalf and first-time World Teamer Jimmy Kennedy.

Go USA!

Sept. 7

TASHKENT, Uzbekistan – Not going to lie, it looks good seeing that dateline on a story.

Wasn't sure we were going to make it, as you may have read in previous blog entries, but we finally rolled into Tashkent around 10 a.m. local time on Sunday.

We are less than 24 hours away from the start of the seven-day World Championships.

Americans Tony Ramos, Nick Marable, Ed Ruth and Tervel Dlagnev are scheduled to compete as the tournament starts with the freestyle competition on Monday. Ramos, Marable and Ruth are first-time World Team members, but each is capable of doing some damage.

Dlagnev is a past World bronze medalist who has finished fifth in the World the past three years. Dlagnev looks as good and as motivated as I've seen him, and look for him to make a run at the heavyweight title.

Went over and checked out the venue this afternoon and I was impressed. It's an itimate venue with no bad seats for the fans. The warmup area is also right off the main arena floor.

We haven't assessed the Internet situation, but the setup looks good.

We also went over to pick up our credentials in a building ajacent to the arena.

We stumbled upon a great little cafe where we had a superb dinner of lamb, beef and chicken on Sunday night. We may not get too many opportunities to sit down for a dinner like that once the tournament kicks off.

Great to see so many familiar faces in the hotel lobby after we arrived today. Among those were Penn State coach and Olympic champion Cael Sanderson, Nebraska coach Mark Manning, World champion and Olympic medalist Clarissa Chun, Cadet World champions Aaron Pico and Mark Hall, World silver medalist Jake Herbert, Olympian Andy Hrovat, NCAA champion Jon Reader, Penn State assisant Casey Cunningham, Nebraska assistant Bryan Snyder and Michigan assistant Sean Bormet.

It's an exciting time for the sport and I'm excited to see Team USA take the mat tomorrow.

Go USA!

Sept. 6

MILAN, Italy – What a crazy day it has been for our group trying to get to the World Championships.

The past 24 hours have provided the wildest, wackiest and most bizarre trip I’ve ever been on in a quarter of a century as a sportswriter and public relations professional.

And we’re still not in Tashkent, Uzbekistan yet for the World Championships.

Four colleagues – Gary Abbott, Richard Immel, Jaimie McNab and Mike Clayton – have joined me on a wild ride that has taken us on a total of six plane rides on four different airlines while covering roughly a dozen time zones.

Our day started Friday morning with a scheduled United Airlines flight from Colorado Springs to Chicago. Shortly before reaching Chicago, a thunderstorm rolled into the area near O’Hare Airport.

O’Hare was closed and our plane was running low on fuel, so we were originally going to be diverted to Milwaukee, but then ended up being routed north to Green Bay.

So we were stuck in northern Wisconsin on our way to Asia. Yikes.

Luckily for us, the weather quickly cleared out in Chicago and we made the short, 29-minute flight from Green Bay to O’Hare.

Our crack staff of Jaimie and Haley Scherr, along with the folks at Cain Travel, did a great job re-booking our flights.

Myself, Gary, Richard and Jaimie jumped on an eight-hour Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany on Friday night/Saturday morning.

Mike Clayton, who started the day thinking he was flying out the next day before we steered him in the right direction, flew from Chicago to Munich.

Mike did a great job of scrambling to meet us in Frankfurt, hustling to the gate after a short, 39-minute flight from Munich.

Richard, Jaimie and Mike all made it onto the plane just in time to join me and Gary for the 65-minute flight from Frankfurt to Vienna, Austria.

We almost missed the flight because United/Lufthansa lost our luggage and we had to go to the Lufthansa desk to give them information on our lost bags.

We had just 30 minutes between flights, but then we jumped on a plane from Vienna to Milan. Now we hope to get to Tashkent by late Sunday morning.

Poor Jaimie. She is not only hobbling around with a broken foot, but she had to spend her birthday on Saturday traveling with four stinky, grumpy dudes on the unbelievably long day of travel. And then she ended up stuck in the back row of the last flight from Vienna to Milan.

We received a much-needed break during a four-hour layover in Milan. We found a great little spot, Harry’s Bar, in the airport and sat down to a nice Italian dinner. Maybe this is a good omen for Greco-Roman star Justin “Harry” Lester when he competes in the Worlds.

Our brief stop in Italy was not quite what our men’s and freestyle teams enjoyed during their acclimation camps in Rome, but at least we got a little taste of Italy on this trip.

Gary bought a bottle of wine and we all raised our glasses in celebration of Jaimie’s 23rd (or at least that’s what we’re going with) birthday.

Mike Clayton chimed in by buying Jaimie some chocolate cake. I bought all of Jaimie’s drinks on the flight from Chicago to Frankfurt (they were all free by the way!)

So our fingers are crossed for the final leg of the trip, a seven-hour flight from Milan to Tashkent for the Worlds.

Let’s hope our trip on Uzbekistan Airlines goes well.

Ready to see some wrestling!

Go USA!

Sept. 5

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – We’re going to Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Those were the words of USA Wrestling communications director Gary Abbott when he stepped up to the United Airlines counter late Friday morning at the Colorado Springs Airport.

And so it begins. Gary, myself and Richard Immel, the three members of USA Wrestling’s communications department, are set to begin our nearly 24-hour trek to Tashkent for the 2014 World Championships.

We will start with a two-hour flight to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and then fly over the Atlantic Ocean on an eight-hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany. The final leg of the journey to Tashkent, a flight of nearly eight hours, will hopefully land us in Uzbekistan.

We will be covering the seven-day event which kicks off with the freestyle competition on Monday and Tuesday.

On the drive to the airport, Gary informed me that he covered his first World Championships in Tokyo, Japan in 1990. John Smith won his third of four World titles that year.

I covered my first of eight World Championships in 2006. It was a memorable trip to Guangzhou, China when Joe Warren and Bill Zadick both struck gold for the U.S.

Richard will be covering his second Worlds after making his debut last year in Budapest, Hungary.

Our communications staff doesn’t travel overseas nearly as much as our coaches and athletes, so we are making sure we have everything we need for the trip – computers, video cameras, passports, notebooks, etc.

We each checked one bag and will have to pick it up in Frankfurt, go through customs and then hustle to catch our flight to Tashkent. We also each have a small carry-on bag in addition to our computer bags.

I’ve been fortunate to see some amazing places in my eight-plus years at USA Wrestling. I’ve been to Tokyo, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, London and Beijing.

We are also traveling with USAW staff members Jaimie McNab and Mike Clayton. I ran into Mike this morning when I was getting some coffee in the office and he told me was traveling with Jaimie tomorrow. I informed Mike that Jaimie was traveling with us today and he realized he was indeed leaving today as well.

Luckily for Mike, I decided to grab that cup of coffee. You’re not in Iowa anymore, Son! Jaimie and I are both from Iowa as well.

A trip like this won’t allow much time for sightseeing. We are scheduled to land in Tashkent late Saturday night, and then we jump right into work on Sunday. The first four U.S. athletes will weigh in that day. We will head to the competition venue to get our credentials and also check out the press tribune where we will be working for the next week.

I did receive a bit of good news when I was able to move 30 seats closer to the front of the plane for the flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. Every minute will be important as we try to quickly work our way through customs to get on the next plane.

The U.S. freestyle team has arrived in Tashkent with the women’s team scheduled to get in about the same time we do. The freestyle teams have both been training during their acclimation camp in Rome.

The Greco-Roman squad, which competes last, also will be in Tashkent in the next few days. The Greco boys have been training in nearby Kazakhstan.

We will once again be providing extensive coverage of the event with stories, video, social media updates, blogs, results and any other information we are able to provide.

The tournament will feature a new twist with 24 total weight classes this year. There are now eight wrestlers competing in each style, one more than in the past.

The U.S. is considered a legitimate contender for team titles in men’s and women’s freestyle. The U.S. Greco team is also hungry to make some noise in Tashkent under first-year coach Matt Lindland.

This is always an exciting event and I can’t wait until the first whistle blows on Monday morning.

Go USA!