2019 Junior World Championships

Yankeefan33

Well-known member
The 2019 Junior World Championships will be held this week in Tallinn, Estonia, which (similar to Cadets) is a 7 hour difference in time from the eastern US. Wrestling with start at 3:30am and semis will be around noon. Men's freestyle will be on Monday/Tuesday, and the US is sending a team with some world experience (and medals) and several new faces.

Monday- Vito Arujau (57kg), Yahya Thomas (65kg), Brayton Lee (Minnesota), Aaron Brooks (79kg) and Tanner Sloan (97kg)
Tuesday- Gabe Tagg (61kg), David Carr (74kg), Trent Hidlay (86kg), Lucas Davison (92kg), and Mason Parris (125kg)

Brooks (gold), Arujau (silver), and Carr (bronze) have all medaled at Cadets. Aaron Brooks took silver in this tourney last year in a close match, and will be a medal threat again this year. I would expect those three to be the USA's best shot at a medal, along with Parris and Brayton Lee. This team is for sure weaker than in years past, with notable Junior eligible names like Yianni and Gable absent. I'll have more on draws/matchups/foreign guys later in the day.

From a world perspective, there are four Cadet champs from last year:
65kg - Turan BAYRAMOV (AZE)
79kg - Bagrati GAGNIDZE (GEO)
92kg - Ali ABDOLLAHI(IRI)
125kg - Amir ZARE (IRI)
 
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Thanks Yank!!!

Here's another, 'write up' (opinion) from another site. Just something else to read. USA!!!!

57 - Arujao - gold threat. Won solver at cadets. High attack rate, highly skilled in freestyle.
61 - Gabe Tagg - has competed internationally, but not with much success. Seems to have jumped levels having trained at the OTC for the last year.
65 - Thomas - unexpected entry. High level defense. Could surprise with medal
70 - Braylon Lee - has multiple excellent comebacks. Could go 0-1 or gold. Would be more confident in Sasso, but Lee best him twice to secure the spot. Excited for this one. Lee May end up being a future star if he keeps progressing
74 - Carr - cadet bronze, high expectations on him. Could win gold. Expected to medal anything less than bronze is a major disappointment.
79 - Brooks - team leader. Cadet gold, junior silver (in am incredible back and forth match). Should win Gold.
86 - Trent Hidlay - beat a solid field to make it. Very good in underhooks. Has a legitimate shot at medaling, but doesn’t have much international experience.
92 - Davidson - came out of nowhere. Hard to tell. If the US wants to win, we need at least 1 or 2 of the randoms to medals. Hope Davidson is as good as he looked at trials.
97 - Tanner Sloan - came out of nowhere and beat Jacob Warner in folk. He is raw in freestyle and his best position is top, but man he looked good vs a tough Whitman. I’m pretty high on Sloan in folk. I hope that translates to free. Damian Hahn is an excellent coach, especially for upperweight guys who are dedicated. Sloan I bet has jumped levels again.
125 - Paris has a very different style than our prior reps, but we have an excellent history of medaling at this weight historically. I expect a medal here. Hard to tell where he will place. The field at heavyweight is difficult to predict
 
Day 1 Draws:

57kg- Vito gets the Georgian round 1, who is a three-time Cadet medalist and took silver at the Youth Olympic Games. That should be a pretty good match to lead off. Would have to think the winner there goes to the semis against Idrisov of Russia, who won this tourney last year. If Vito wins round 1 I think he takes bronze, but if he loses I think it's a short tourney for him.

65kg- Yahya Thomas gets a very winnable round 1 match against Kyrgyzstan, but will face Bayramov of Azwrbaijan in Round 2. Bayramov has been on a tear in the last two years winning Euro Cadets, Cadet Worlds, and the Youth Olympic Games last year (and following that up with a Junior Euro title this year). Even if Yahya pulls off the big upset, returning Junior silver Maghsoudi of Iran would be in the quarters. It's a tough road for a medal and looks like a 1-1/1-2 appearance.

70kg- Brayton Lee can sneak his way to a medal here I think. Opening round against either Azerbaijan or Israel, neither of whom has a great result. The quarters against Moldova will be pretty tough, as Diacon won Euro Juniors this year. I could see anywhere from 1-1 to a bronze medal, not too sure- Lee's gas tank will give these guys problems.

79kg- Well the best two guys will meet Round 1, as Aaron Brooks draws Abakarov of Azerbaijan. Abakarov took silver here last year (lost to Mekhi Lewis) and beat brooks earlier this year overseas. The winner there would have the Russian round 2, so Brooks is in a tricky spot- lose and run the risk of going 0-1. If Brooks wins his first two I think he takes gold.

92kg- Looking like a short tourney for Tanner Sloan, who draws the Euro champ from Turkey Round 1. The Iranian is also up top, so even if he gets drawn back in a medal is doubtful.
 
Only Arujao left in the winners bracket.
Brooks eliminated.
Brayton Lee eliminated.
Thomas eliminated.

:eek:
 
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Only Arujao left in the winners bracket.
Brooks eliminated.
Brayton Lee eliminated.
Thomas eliminated.

:eek:

This looks bad but it was kind of expected tbh. Brooks ran into a dang good wrestler, who then lost to the Russian. Both Brooks' match with the Azeri and Azerbaijan vs Russia were good matches with high level guys. Yahya won and then lost to Bayramov like I tought, and the Iranian beat Bayramov in another good match. Feed was down for Brayton's match but seemed like he couldn't get to offense. And Tanner Sloan hung close at first, but the wrestler from Turkey has too much talent.

Vito Arujau just made the finals with an extremely nice win too. That's a victory (over 2018 Junior champ Idrisov) that I was not expecting.
 
Day 2 Brackets:

61kg: Gabe Tagg gets a decent draw, at least in the two potential opening matches against Belarus and Kyrgyzstan). Tagg's quarters opponent will probably be Iran, but honestly this bracket is unproven. Thinking potential 2-1 appearance, but pretty wide variation of possibilities for Tagg.

74kg: David Carr gets the Russian round 1, who took bronze here last year. Stacked top half of this bracket- Carr would have to beat Russia, Iran (3rd @ Asian Seniors this year), and Gadzhiev of Azerbaijan (champ last year here and Azerbaijan's senior rep) to make the finals. Carr can lose any of these first three matches and I think he tops out at bronze, but won't predict a medal.

86kg: Hoagie Hidlay gets China round 1 and the winner of Moldova/Ukraine round 2. The wrestler from Moldova is tough (5th last year), and it doesn't get easier as Iran, Azerbaijan, Japan, Russia, and Uzbekistan all feed into his semi. Thinking 1-1 for Hidlay with no repechage.

92kg: Lucas Davison has the easiest draw of any USA wrestler this week. Canada round 1 to India round 2 (Viky was Cadet bronze 3 years ago), but avoids Russia, Iran, and Hamzatov, all of which have international medals. This is a sneaky bronze draw for Davison if he can beat India/India can make the finals

125kg: Another good draw here for Mason Parris, who gets Georgia round 1 (3rd @ Euro Juniors). Not too much firepower overall in this bracket, and with Iran (Amir Zare, Cadet champ last year, beat Kerkvliet) and the Russian on the bottom, look for Mason Parris to challenge for a medal as well.
 
Our guys are out here scrapping this morning. All five have made the semis, with Tagg, Hidlay, and Carr all taking out quality opponents from Iran simultaneously in the quarters. Mason Parris looks like a man on a mission as well. The semis will be held today around 11:30, at which point Vito will also wrestle for gold!
 
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Yankeefan or anyone else that knows the answer to this question...

I have always wondered, why in international tournaments like this one, do they put ALL the byes in the top half of the bracket, unless there are more byes than the top half 'matches' then it bleeds into the bottom half. Basically they start at bout "1" and just place the byes down the bracket until they run out of byes.

In most folk tournaments the byes are either random or "given" to the highest seeds.

Just seems like it makes it a little easier if you are on the top half of the bracket, one less match you have to win vs those on the bottom half.
 
JMOG, Check this out.

I've never seen a 'real' explanation, but check out this thread. It's as helpful as any? LOL

http://board.themat.com/index.php?/topic/6978-question-on-world-championship-brackets/

So the best answer anyone could give was to create a higher chance that two competitors had the same rest since their last match?

Yet, if there are say 6 returning medalists in your weight, chances are that 4 will end up on bottom and 2 on top? Makes zero sense.

It makes less sense now that they seed it. The 4th, 5th, and 8th seed (not sure how far they seed) get byes but the 2 and 3 don't?
 
This is, 'No Man's Land' Best of luck finding anything helpful. That was the 'best' I could do.
The UWW International Wrestling rules have no explanation of 'byes' either.(n)
 
So the best answer anyone could give was to create a higher chance that two competitors had the same rest since their last match?

Yet, if there are say 6 returning medalists in your weight, chances are that 4 will end up on bottom and 2 on top? Makes zero sense.

It makes less sense now that they seed it. The 4th, 5th, and 8th seed (not sure how far they seed) get byes but the 2 and 3 don't?

They only seed to 4. The benefit of having the 2/3/4 seed is that you cannot be drawn against any of those seeds until the semis. Sure the 4 seed gets the smaller bracket and the 2/3 get the big bracket, but they also avoid the 1 seed until the finals.
 
Semis:

61kg- Tagg loses 12-2 to the wrestler from Japan, who was excellent converting takedowns to turns. According to a person on Twitter, Yamaguchi is Japan's world team rep at 61kg. Tagg will wrestle for bronze tomorrow against the winner of repechage between South Korea, China, and Georgia.

74kg- WOW DAVID CARR!!! Takedown in the first 10 seconds, locks up a lace and TECHS the returning world champ Gadzhiyev from Azerbaijan! Onto the finals tomorrow for Carr.

86kg- Hidlay losses to the Russian in a close one 4-3. A lost challenge was the difference, which is a tough way to go out. He'll get the winner of the Mongolia/Latvia/Sweden repechage and should be the favorite for bronze (all other wrestlers in that repechage were teched by the Russian).

92kg- Lucas Davison with the pin! Goes up 8-0 on a takedown and three guts, then gets taken down and turned before catching the Mongolian mid-turn and pinning him. Davison will face the Russian in the finals.

125kg- Mason Parris to the finals! Wins 10-0 over Turkey in dominant fashion. Will face Amir Zare of Iran, who won Cadets last year over Kerkvliet. Looks like a tall task, but Parris has been great so far.

That's three more in the finals with two for bronze. Great day for Team USA hopefully punctuated by Vito's gold in 15 minutes or so.
 
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I think that closes the gap in the team race to 120-115 in favor of Russia over USA. Russia beat Hilday 4-3 at 86kg. That would have given USA the lead.
 
Man I wish Carr was at OSU. Met the kid once as one of his HS teachers lives down the road from road from us. He is one of the nicest kids you will ever meet too.
 
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