Snyder returns to World finals, Woods enters repechage

ZAGREB, Croatia – In classic Kyle Snyder fashion, he avenged an early season loss at the World Championship, all the while guaranteeing his place on the podium for an eighth time.  

An early scramble takedown from Snyder set the tone in his 9-1 semifinal win over Asian champion Arash Yoshida of Japan at 97 kg. Yoshida got in deep on a single leg, nearly exposing Snyder, but he couldn’t finish the job as Snyder reversed the action for a takedown of his own. It was all Snyder thereafter. He logged three second-period takedowns to pull away from Yoshida and secure his sixth appearance in the World finals.

In the last match between these two, Yoshida collected a 5-5 criteria win over Snyder at the Muhamet Malo Ranking Series tournament held in February. It was a much different story on Monday night at Arena Zagreb.  

Snyder will search for his fourth World title against Iran’s Amirali Azarpira in a rematch of last year’s Olympic bronze medal match from Paris, won by Azarpira. The talented Iranian scored a semifinal upset win over reigning Olympic and World champion Akhmed Tazhudinov of Bahrain, 5-2.

Two Americans entered the semifinal session with a chance at a repechage match—Real Woods at 65 kg in men’s freestyle and Cristelle Rodriguez at 55 kg women’s freestyle. The repechage wheel of fate favored Woods, while Rodriguez narrowly missed out on a second chance opportunity.

With Olympic silver medalist Rahman Amouzadkhalili of Iran pushing through to the finals, Woods gets new life tomorrow morning. His first repechage opponent is Ikromzhon Khadzhimurodov of Kyrgyzstan. Woods needs two wins to qualify for a bronze medal match.

After coming out on top against Rodriguez in the opening round, Romania’s Andreea Ana went all the way to the semifinals before losing a last-second heartbreaker. The result sent the U.S. home with a disappointing 0-2 record and no medal opportunities on the first day of women’s wrestling.

For a complete match-by-match breakdown of the evening session for Team USA in Zagreb, browse our day three match notes.

The tournament resumes at 6 p.m. local time on Monday with the men’s freestyle group two (57-74-79-92 kg) medal matches. Zagreb, Croatia, is in the GMT +2 time zone, which is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

The Senior World Championships are streaming live on FloWrestling.com to the U.S. market. Brackets and updated results are available on UWW Arena.

USA Wrestling will provide regular updates on TheMat.com and its social media platforms throughout the event.