Bowling IV finishes fifth as U20 World Championships conclude in Bulgaria

SAMOKOV, Bulgaria – The fight was there, but the medals weren’t.

During Sunday afternoon’s repechage round, U.S. coach Joe Warren explained that sometimes you just have to try to win a fight rather than just trying to win a match.

Warren’s simple explanation made sense as both Landon Drury and Leister Bowling IV won repechage matches, but ultimately both fell short of their medal hopes as the U20 World Championships came to a close, leaving the U.S. without a Greco-Roman medal at the championships.

Bowling IV reached the bronze medal bout at 77kg on Sunday night at Arena Samokov, but 2024 U17 world champion Kiryl Valeuski was too much to handle as the UWW athlete beat Bowling IV, 9-0.

Drury won his first repechage bout against China’s Hao Yang at 63kg, but was eliminated from medal contention after suffering an 11-0 loss at the hands of dynamic Iranian Mohammad Aboutalebi, a U20 Asian bronze medalist. Drury finished in 12th place.

Iran won the team championship with 117 points, crowning one champion and earning five overall medals. Armenia was second, picking up 98 points from a gold, two silvers, and a bronze. Azerbaijan was third with 90 points, earning a gold, a silver, and a bronze. Team USA finished in 17th place with 16 points.

Individual titles on Sunday night were won by athletes representing United World Wrestling, Uzbekistan, and Georgia.

At 63kg, Aytjan Khalmakhanov of Uzbekistan broke open a close bout with a big four-pointer to start the second period and then closed out his gold medal performance with another four-point toss to secure a 12-2 technical superiority over Aleks Margaryan of Armenia. It was Khalmakhanov’s second age-group world title—he previously won gold at the 2022 U17 World Championships.

Georgian Anri Putkaradze was impressive, picking up a 10-1 technical superiority victory over Iran’s Ahoura Bouveiri at 77kg. Putkaradze won his fourth age-group world medal and second world championship, having also won U17 gold in 2022 in Rome.

At 87kg, Luka Kochalidze made it back-to-back titles for Georgia as he stepped over UWW athlete Abdurakhman Abdulkadyrov two minutes into the gold medal final. It was the second straight finals win for Kochalidze over his opponent, having also beaten Abdulkadyrov at the U20 European Championships in June. This marked major improvement for Kochalidze, who finished eighth at last year’s U17 World Championships.

At 130 kg, UWW athlete Ali Iliasov was dominant in his 9-0 technical superiority win over Turkiye’s two-time U17 world champion Cemal Bakir.

The location for the 2026 U17 World Championships has not yet been selected, but Azerbaijan, Egypt, Jordan, Romania, and this year’s host, Bulgaria, are the candidates.