Blades dominates bronze medal match, Bey to repechage at World Championships
Share:
by Richard Immel, USA Wrestling
Kennedy Blades celebrates winning a bronze medal at the 2025 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.
ZAGREB, Croatia – After experiencing her first loss since the Olympic final over one year ago, 22-year-old Kennedy Blades got the next best thing—She showed the grit of a champion to come back for a World bronze medal.
It was a tall task for blades in the 68 kg bronze medal showcase. She was matched against 2024 Olympic bronze medalist and 2023 World champion Buse Cavusoglu Tosun of Türkiye. Blades made Cavusoglu Tosun appear pedestrian, posting a 12-1 technical fall over the savvy veteran.
Blades saved her best effort for last. She got to all of her spots with apparent ease, converting multiple takedowns, displaying excellent mat awareness and body positioning, all-the-while snuffing out any Cavusoglu Tosun threat. Fittingly, a re-attack single leg iced the win with 37 seconds left in on the clock.
The bronze is Blades first medal at a Senior World Championships, in this her first appearance. She is a three-time age-group World medalist, with a U20 World title coming in 2021, plus a U20 World bronze and U23 World silver in 2023. Blades collected silver up at 76 kg last year at the Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Women’s freestyle group three athletes Adaugo Nwachukwu at 62 kg and Alex Glaude at 72 kg—both of whom lost in the quarterfinals and didn’t receive a repechage opportunity—wound up with seventh place points in their weights.
The U.S. took fourth place overall in the women’s freestyle team rankings with 83 team points stemming from a gold medal from Helen Maroulis at 57 kk and bronze medals from Blades and Kylie Welker at 76 kg. The U.S. was up by a point over China going into the final set of medal matches, needing a Zelu Li loss in the 72 kg bronze medal match to stay in front. Li wound up winning to push China ahead and onto the team podium. Japan finished in first place with 162 points and North Korea put together a surprising runner-up performance with 115 points.
The U.S. Greco-Roman unit had two athletes who entered the semifinal round with repechage hopes. It was a fifty-percent success rate with 2024 Olympian Kamal Bey getting pushed through to tomorrow’s repechage round and 2024 U17 World champion Jayden Raney missing out on a wrestle-back opportunity.
To take advantage of his new life in the tournament and make a bronze medal match, Bey will need two repechage wins during the Friday morning session. His path goes through 2017 World silver medalist Mateusz Bernatek of Poland and 2024 World bronze medalist Ahmet Yilmaz of Türkiye.
For a complete match-by-match breakdown of the evening session for Team USA in Zagreb, browse our day six match notes.
The tournament resumes at 10:30 a.m. local time on Friday with the Greco-Roman group one (55-77-82-130 kg) repechage and the Greco-Roman group two (60-72-97 kg) preliminary rounds. Max Black, Alejandro Sancho and Michial Foy take the mats for the first time tomorrow morning for Team USA. 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.
1. Japan, 162
2. North Korea, 115
3. China, 87
4. United States, 83
5. Ukraine, 75
6. Türkiye, 67
7. Mongolia, 65
8. Ecuador, 47
9. Kyrgyzstan, 35
10. India, 35
Gold – Haruna Murayama Okuno (Japan)
Silver – Lucia Yepez Guzman (Ecuador)
Bronze – Antim (India)
Bronze – Hyogyong Choe (North Korea)
5th – Emma Malmgren (Sweden)
5th – Shokhida Akhmedova (Uzbekistan)
7th – Jin Zhang (China)
8th – Maria Prevolaraki (Greece)
9th – Carla Jaume Soler (Spain)
10th – Roksana Zasina (Poland)
Gold – Haruna Murayama Okuno (Japan) dec. Lucia Yepez Guzman (Ecuador), 5-0
Bronze – Antim (India) dec. Emma Malmgren (Sweden), 9-1
Bronze – Hyogyong Choe (North Korea) fall Shokhida Akhmedova (Uzbekistan), 4:00
Gold – Sakura Motoki (Japan)
Silver – Ok Ju Kim (North Korea)
Bronze – Orkhon Purevdorj (Mongolia)
Bronze – Amina Tandelova (UWW)
5th – Esther Kolawole (Nigeria)
5th – Bilyana Dudova (Bulgaria)
7th – Adaugo Nwachukwu (United States)
8th – Ana Godinez Gonzalez (Canada)
9th – Alicja Nowosad (Poland)
10th – Veranika Ivanova (UWW)
Gold – Sakura Motoki (Japan) dec. Ok Ju Kim (North Korea), 5-4
Bronze – Orkhon Purevdorj (Mongolia) dec. Esther Kolawole (Nigeria), 6-5
Bronze – Amina Tandelova (UWW) dec. Bilyana Dudova (Bulgaria), 4-2
Gold – Ami Ishii (Japan)
Silver – Yuliana Yaneva (Bulgaria)
Bronze – Kennedy Blades (United States)
Bronze – Jia Long (China)
5th – Buse Cavusoglu Tosun (Türkiye)
5th – Sol Gum Pak (North Korea)
7th – Sophia Schaefle (Germany)
8th – Adela Hanzlickova (Czechia)
9th – Radhika (India)
10th – Hyeonyeong Park (Korea)
Gold – Ami Ishii (Japan) dec. Yuliana Yaneva (Bulgaria), 4-2
Bronze – Kennedy Blades (United States) tech. fall Buse Cavusoglu Tosun (Türkiye), 12-1
Bronze – Jia Long (China) dec. Sol Gum Pak (North Korea), 6-1
Gold – Alla Belinska (Ukraine)
Silver – Nesrin Bas (Türkiye)
Bronze – Nurzat Nurtaeva (Kyrgyzstan)
Bronze – Zelu Li (China)
5th – Paula Lecarpentier (France)
5th – Alexandra Anghel (Romania)
7th – Alexandria Glaude (United States)
8th – Bolortungalag Zorigt (Mongolia)
9th – Zsuzsanna Molnar (Slovakia)
10th – Zhamila Bakbergenova (Kazakhstan)
Gold – Alla Belinska (Ukraine) fall. Nesrin Bas (Türkiye), 4:25
Bronze – Nurzat Nurtaeva (Kyrgyzstan) dec. Paula Lecarpentier (France), 5-0
Bronze – Zelu Li (China) dec. Alexandra Anghel (Romania), 7-4
55 kg – Payam Ahmadi Balootaki (Iran) vs. Vakhtang Lolua (Georgia)
77 kg – Nao Kusaka (Japan) vs. Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia)
82 kg – Gholamreza Farokhisenjani (Iran) vs. Gela Bolkvadze (Georgia)
130 kg – Amin Mirzazadeh (Iran) vs. Darius Vitek (Hungary)
Payam Ahmadi Balootaki (Iran) dec. Eldaniz Azizli (Azerbaijan), 3-1
Vakhtang Lolua (Georgia) dec. Muhammet Cakir (Turkey), 2-2
Nao Kusaka (Japan) dec. Robert Fritsch (Hungary), 3-1
Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) dec. Alireza Abdevali (Iran), 5-1
Gholamreza Farokhisenjani (Iran) dec. Karlo Kodric (Croatia), 7-1
Gela Bolkvadze (Georgia) dec. Taizo Yoshida (Japan), 8-5
Amin Mirzazadeh (Iran) dec. Wenhao Jiang (China), 3-1
Darius Vitek (Hungary) dec. Pavel Hlinchuk (UWW), 1-1
53 kg – Felicity Taylor (Coralville, Iowa/Big Game WC/Titan Mercury WC), 22nd Place
LOSS Jin Zhang (China), tech. fall, 10-0
62 kg – Adaugo Nwachukwu (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army WCAP), 7th Place
WIN Selvi Ilyasoglu (Turkey), 7-3
WIN Johanna Lindborg (Sweden), 13-6
LOSS Orkhon Purevdorj (Mongolia), 5-2
WIN Radhika (India), tech. fall, 11-0
LOSS Ami Ishii (Japan), tech. fall, 12-1
WIN Manola Skobelska (Ukraine), 9-2
WIN Buse Cavusoglu Tosun (Türkiye), tech. fall, 12-1
72 kg – Alexandria Glaude (Menlo Park, Calif./California RTC/Titan Mercury WC), 7th Place
WIN Svetlana Oknazarova (Uzbekistan), fall, 3:31
WIN Masako Furuichi (Japan), 3-2
LOSS Nurzat Nurtaeva (Kyrgyzstan), 8-4
WIN Koriun Sahradian (Ukraine), 2-1
WIN Sajjad Ali Albidhan (Iraq), fall, 4:23
LOSS Eldaniz Azizli (Azerbaijan), 5-1
LOSS Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia), 2-1
VS Mateusz Bernatek (Poland)
LOSS Shahin Badaghimofrad (Qatar), 6-4
130 kg – Cohlton Schultz (Tempe, Ariz./Atreus WC), Eliminated
LOSS Sergei Semenov (UWW), 5-2
U.S. team receives draws in all three styles for U15 Pan American Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala, May 22-24
U.S. team receives draws in all three styles for U23 Pan American Championships in Queretaro, Mexico, April 10-12
Match Notes: U23 World Championships Day Three
Strong U.S. team set to compete at Pan-American Championships in Acapulco, Mexico, Feb. 21-24
