Women’s freestyle brackets released for U20 World Championships in Pontevedra, Spain

PONTEVEDRA, Spain – The women’s freestyle brackets have been released for the 2024 U20 World Championships.10 American women will take the mats starting tomorrow in search of a prestigious age-group World medal.

Two members of last year’s U20 World Team are making a repeat appearance for Team USA—Alexis Janiak at 59 kg and Cristelle Rodriguez at 55 kg. Janiak earned a bronze medal at the 2023 U20 Worlds held in Amman, Jordan, while Rodriguez wound up in 12^th place.

As the highest returning placer at her weight class, Janiak is among the favorites to win gold. She will have a challenging opener against Lithuania’s Anna Tieliegina, who has finished in fifth place at the last two U20 European Championships.

Rodriguez, who was a silver medalist at the 2019 U17 World Championships, is opposite Amelia Tomala of Poland in the first round. Tomala was a fifth-place finisher at last year’s U17 Worlds.

Reigning NCWWC national champion for Iowa Reese Larramendy is back for her second crack at the U20 World Championships after earning fifth place in 2022 but missing the cut last year. Her run at 65 kg starts with talented individual neutral athlete Margarita Salnazarian, who is a past U17 World bronze medalist. Salnazarian earned bronze at this year’s U20 European Championships.

2023 U17 World bronze medalist Jasmine Robinson slots in at 72 kg for Team USA. Her run toward a second World podium begins against uncredentialled Edna Jimenez Villalba of Mexico.

Four more U.S. athletes will face World or Continental medalists out of the gate—Carissa Qureshi is up against two-time U17 World champion Sowaka Uchida of Japan at 57 kg, Caitlyn Davis will face 2022 U17 World bronze medalist Gulnura Tashtanbekova of Kyrgyzstan at 68 kg, Naomi Simon opens with reigning U23 European champion Mariia Orlevych of Ukraine at 76 kg, and Brianna Gonzalez is paired against 2023 U20 Asian silver medalist Jyoti Jyoti of India at 53 kg.

Other U.S. women’s freestyle participants include Anaya Falcon at 50 kg and Cadence Diduch at 62 kg. Falcon is paired against Shahreen Gulacha of Canada, while Diduch will see Seoyeon Bae of Korea to open the event.

The women’s freestyle portion of the U20 World Championships will be held Sept. 4-6, with the action beginning at 10 a.m. local time each day. Pontevedra, Spain, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The U.S. will compete in two groups over the course of the women’s freestyle event. Group one, which starts on Sept. 4, is comprised of Falcon, Rodriguez, Janiak, Davis and Simon. Group two starts a day later, featuring Gonzalez, Qureshi, Diduch, Larramendy and Robinson.

A full set of brackets and match-by-match results are available on UWW Arena. A live broadcast of the event is available for the U.S. market at FloWrestling.com.

Stay tuned to TheMat.com and USA Wrestling’s social media platforms for complete coverage of the U20 World Championships.