Molinari and Green receive draws for 2019 Yasar Dogu International

Photos by United World Wrestling.

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Women’s freestyler Forrest Molinari and men’s freestyler James Green received their draws for the 2019 Yasar Dogu International, which begins Thursday in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Yasar Dogu International is the final event in the UWW Rankings Series this season. Competitors can earn placement points towards their seeds at the 2019 World Championships. The four wrestlers with the most placements points per weight class will be seeded accordingly at the World Championships in Kazakhstan in September.

Molinari, a two-time Senior World Team member and two-time U23 World Team member, is the only American female competing this weekend. She will open her tournament at 65 kg against Rimma Russaeva of Kazakhstan, who was fifth at the 2012 Cadet Asian Championships.

Molinari was fifth at the 2018 Senior World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. She currently holds the No. 4 seed for the 2019 World Championships and looks to improve her seed this weekend.

Two-time World medalist Green will be the first men’s freestyle athlete from the U.S. to compete, wrestling at 70 kg. For the first round, he drew Haydar Yavuz of Turkey. Yavuz was fifth at the 2017 U23 World Championships and won a silver medal at the 2018 Dan Kolov International.

Green is not in position to claim a top-four seed for 2019 Worlds.

The tournament begins at 11 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET) on Thursday and will be live streamed on FloWrestling.org.

Fans can also follow @USAWrestling on Twitter for live updates.

2019 YASAR DOGU INTERNATIONAL
at Istanbul, Turkey, July 11-14

U.S. women’s freestyle draws
65 kg: Forrest Molinari (Iowa City, Iowa/Hawkeye WC/Titan Mercury)

vs. Rimma Russaeva (Kazakhstan), fifth at 2012 Cadet Asian Championships

U.S. men’s freestyle draws
70 kg: James Green (Lincoln, Neb./Titan Mercury WC/Nebraska WTC)
vs. Haydar Yavuz (Turkey), fifth at 2017 U23 World Championships, second at 2018 Dan Kolov International