Wrestling World Championships in Budapest: 3rd day

Variety of Countries Earn Medals – Fifteen countries earned medals in the three days of men’s freestyle wrestling. There were seven teams with multiple medals Iran (5), Russia (5), India (3) Ukraine (3), Cuba (2), India (2), TUR (2) and Hungary, United States, Armenia, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Georgia Belarus and Uzbekistan (1).

Despite Broken Ankle, Burroughs Remains Undefeated – Jordan Burroughs (USA), the only 2012 Olympic Champion to compete in men’s freestyle, secured his second world gold on Wednesday, defeating Akbari of Iran 4-0. In addition to the world title, Burroughs also pushed his unbeaten streak to an impressive 65-straight matches.

While that might be impressive on any day, the USA Wrestling Twitter account confirmed that less than a month ago Burroughs had surgery to put six screws into his broken ankle.

“This has been the most difficult World Championship for me so,” said Burroughs. “I had to fight hard for the gold medal. I’m happy to still be the champion”

With an offensive style of attack-first wrestling, Burroughs was one of the most popular wrestlers with the fans earning arena-wide cheers for his impressive semifinal match win over Ali Shabanau. Burroughs was up 6-0 before Shabanau was disqualified for hands to the face.

In the finals Burroughs was able to get past Ezzatollah Akbari of Iran 4-0 using a combination of two push outs and a takedown.

With Akbari Finalists, Iran Wins Team Title

Though not the individual gold he might have wanted, Ezzatollah Akbari’s bronze at 74kg helped the Iranian team win their first team title in men’s freestyle since 2002. Before his semifinal bout with when they won the championship on their home soil of Tehran.

This year’s title in men’s freestyle marks Iran’s fifth title overall after winning team gold in 1961 (Tokyo) 1965 (Manchester), 1998 (Tehran) and 2002 (Tehran).

Venezuelan Comeback

Already Venezuela’s most-decorated wrestler Mayelis Caripa Castillo made history Wednesday night in Budapest when she earned her country’s first-ever silver medal in senior-level women’s wrestling. Castillo used an impressive high-amplitude double leg to blast her way through the quarterfinal and semifinal competition. But her placement wasn’t only half her story.