Disappointing day for the U.S. in Greco at the World Championships.

Spencer Mango lost first match and was eliminated when the guy he lost to did not make the finals.

Justin (Harry) Lester won his first four matches then was defeated by the Georgian in the semifinals. Lost his bronze medal match to the Cuban to finish 5th.

Justin Ruiz lost his first match to Lidberg from Sweden. Lidberg made the finals which allowed Ruiz a chance to wresle back for bronze. Won his first match but lost the next.

Joe Betterman, Chaney Height, and Dremiel Byers will wrestle tomorrow.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bronco,

Why not make it double elimination? Wrestle one match and done unless guy makes the finals. Wow. One match on the world stage and it could be 5 minutes and done. Seems rather absurd.

Day 2 for the U.S. greco team was not any better.

Joe Betterman (132 lbs.) loses first match to Venezualan. That wrestler loses in the semifinals which eliminated Betterman.

Chaney Haight (185lbs.) loses first round and eliminated after his opponent from KGZ lost the next round.

Dremiel Byers (264 lbs.), a former world gold and silver medalist, lost first round to Tinaliyez from Kazagstan. That wrestler lost in the semifinals which knocked Byers out of the competition. Tinaliyez won his bronze medal match.

* Mijain Lopez (264 lbs.), a 5x world medalist and 2008 Olympic champ from Cuba, was defeated in the finals by a wrestler from Turkey.

quote:

Originally posted by Alexander_Delarge_655321:
Why not make it double elimination? Wrestle one match and done unless guy makes the finals. Wow. One match on the world stage and it could be 5 minutes and done. Seems rather absurd.

Until the mid 1960's the NCAA tournament was run the same way. The semi finals were held on Friday night and all of the people the 2 finalists had beaten along the way were alive for 3rd and 4th. (no cross bracketing) We only gave 4 places then. If you got beat on Thursday you made weight on Friday, knowing you would not wrestle on Friday, and maybe you wouldn't wrestle again. If your guy won in the semis on Friday night then you made weight on Saturday for the consolations.

I remember. Being that this is on the world stage, it just seems like a hell of a lot of work for what could be one match.

They used to do this at the state tournament also. There is a reason that it not done anymore. It is not good for the sport or the competitors. How many times do you see guys lose the first or second round and battle back to get 3rd at tournament? It is especially bad at the international level where they do not seat the tournament. A bad draw will end your day quickly. They need to get rid of this at the same time they get rid of the ball grab to decide the match.

What happened to the US Greco team? I think this is one of the most disappointing performances at Worlds' in a long time...

Blaschko, I am not familiar with international wrestling, but what is the ball grab? Or do I want to know.

In freestyle they wrestle the best out of 3 periods 2 minutes a piece. At the end of the period if no one has scored they go to a bag with a red and blue ball in it. A ball is pulled to determine who will have the advantage in the clinch. If your color is pulled you get to grab your oponents leg then the action starts. It is almost always won by who ever gets the clinch. In my opinion it is a prerry stupid way to determine the outcome of a match.

To compare it to football it would be like giving the team that wins the coin flip and they get to kick an extra point to win it. If they score they win and if they miss they lose. Dumb rule.

good annalogy you know.

OK then, I think international wrestling has done the best they can to make the match as exciting as possible. I love the push out, love how little time is on the mat, love the need to score last, love the two out of three periods.

So how then do be break a 0-0 tie at the end of a period? Do you like the way Greco does it...going to parteir (sp?)

I say keep them on their feet until someone scores...I don't care how long it takes....Aren't we trying to find the champion not the one that got the lucky draw.

They won't do that because that kind of overtime is in the Americans favor. We are always in better shape than anyone else in the World. The longer the match goes the better chance we have.

A ball draw for a world title?!?! Wow! I think I'm more disappointed knowing what a ball draw is than what I was afraid it was.

so each period would have an untimed sudden death....that could be really exciting....could also be really boring.

Americans could really help themselves out by getting better on the mat. Only a few of our wrestlers really try and turn anyone, and even fewer do.

I agree that the longer the match the better our chances to win are, but also, the longer the match the more passivities get called. Nobody in the world fears our ability to turn anyone.