Amine, Valencia Advance to Finals at Stepan Sargsyan Cup

YEREVAN, Armenia – Cameron Amine and Zahid Valencia both advanced to gold medal matches at the 26th Stepan Sargsyan Cup at Dynamo Sports Hall in Yerevan, Armenia.

The Cowboy RTC duo won three matches each, with Valencia shutting out his foes on Friday.

2025 World champion Valencia opened up the competition with a 10-0 technical fall versus Tornike Tulashvili of Georgia. In the quarterfinals, he rolled to a 10-0 victory over 2024 World Military champion Rustem Myrzagaliyev of Kazakhstan. Facing Alan Tigiev of Bulgaria, Valencia continued his dominance with a 51-second, 10-0 technical fall to move into the championship round.

In the gold medal match at 86 kg, Valencia squares off against two-time age-group Asian medalist Askhab Khajiyev of Kazakhstan.

Amine started the day with a 5-1 decision over 2023 Asian champion Darkhan Yessengali of Kazakhstan. Amine controlled his quarterfinal match from start to finish and secured an 11-0 win against two-time age-group European medalist Kaloyan Atanasov of Bulgaria. Looking to punch his ticket to the finals at 74 kg, Amine trailed 1-0 at the break against 2024 U23 World Team member Murat Dzhakupov of Kazakhstan, then battled back with a pair of step-out points in the final two minutes to win 2-1.

For gold, Amine takes on two-time age-group World medalist Imam Ganishov of Russia.

Joey McKenna and Killian Delaney rounded out the U.S. lineup on Friday. McKenna got off to a strong start with a 10-0 win over four-time age-group World Team member Vasile Marcu of Moldova at 65 kg. However, going up against 2021 World champion Abasgadzhi Magomedov of Russia in the quarterfinals, McKenna dropped an 8-0 contest. Magomedov advanced to the finals, which pulled McKenna back into the repechage on Saturday against two-time age-group European medalist Hayko Gasparyan of Armenia.

Delaney dropped his opening match at 57 kg to 2024 World Military bronze medalist Amir Chamzyn of Russia, 11-0. Delaney did not make the repechage round after Chamzyn lost in the semifinals.

Valencia and Amine are back in action at 5 p.m. local time on Saturday for the medal rounds. McKenna will compete at 11 a.m. on Saturday in the repechage alongside Izzak Olejnik, who will begin action at 79 kg.

Live and archived streams from the 26th Stepan Sargsyan Cup are available on the Armen Garamyan YouTube Channel.