Leydecker flawless en route to gold medal finals at 55kg

SAMOKOV, Bulgaria – In the 1990s, the video game Mortal Kombat popularized the phrase “flawless victory.”

On Wednesday at the U20 World Championships at Arena Samokov in Samokov, Bulgaria, American Everest Leydecker brought new meaning to the phrase.

Exactly a month shy of her 18th birthday, Leydecker shut out all three opponents 10-0 to earn a trip to Thursday night’s 55kg gold medal finals. Leydecker’s semifinal technical fall over three-time age group world medalist Tuba Demir of Turkiye was textbook control ties.

Over and over again, Leydecker drove an underhook to her left side and drove Demir to the edge. While the first several attempts could have resulted in frustration because of repeated grounding calls, Leydecker stayed the course and eventually broke through, wearing Demir down for the third 10-0 match of the day.

Leydecker will face India’s Reena, a two-time age-group world champion and the 2025 U20 Asian champion. Reena picked up an 11-1 technical superiority victory over Romania’s Alexandra Voiculescu.

Daniella Nugent wasn’t as fortunate. After reaching the semifinals at 65kg, the Massachusetts native fell to Japan’s Momoka Kitade 12-2 and will wrestle for bronze on Thursday. Kitade controlled the edge, capitalizing on good position and scoring key stepouts and takedowns in the zone. It was the third loss of the day to Japan. Kitade will face UWW athlete Margarita Salnazarian, who pinned Egypt's Mouda Hamdoun in the other semifinal.

Semifinal losses by Japan’s Shirin Takemoto to China’s Yangzhen at 62kg and Mongolia’s Tuvshinjargal Tarav to Ukraine’s Nadiia Sokolovska at 76kg eliminated Americans from medal contention. Takemoto beat Haylie Jaffe earlier in the day, while Tarav defeated Naomi Simon.

At 62kg, Yangzhen will face Azerbaijan’s Ruzanna Mammadova, while Sokolovska will take on India’s Priya. Mammadova pinned Turkiye’s Busra Efe and 2024 U20 world champion Priya teched Serbia’s Evelin Ujhelji. At 76kg,