Miracle Silver, Burkert Bronze, Hildebrandt & Gray Advance to World Finals in Oslo
Miracle, Gray, and Hildebrandt all earned medals at the 2021 UWW World Championships. Photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo/WrestlersAreWarriors.com.
by Derek Levendusky, AWW staff writer
Twitter: @AWWderek
U.S. women continue to prove that we’re one of the best programs in the world as they put on podium performances in Oslo, with 62 kg Kayla Miracle taking silver, 55 kg Jenna Burkert winning bronze, and 50 kg Sarah Hildebrandt and 76 kg Adeline Gray both assuring at least silver medals by advancing to the finals. Forrest Molinari will wrestle for bronze.
Kayla Miracle broke through to win her first-ever world medal by making the finals, ultimately falling to Olympic silver medalist Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 7-0. She made the finals on day one with tech falls in her first two matches over Gantuya Enkhbat of Mongolia and Russia’s Alina Kasabieva, respectively. She had a much closer match in the semis, a 2-0 chess match-like win over Lais Nunes De Oliveira of Brazil in a battle of positioning and defense. Miracle scored one in the first period on a shot clock point, and put another point on the board in the second with a step out.
After a heartbreaking exit in the first round at the Olympics, Miracle vindicated herself with her silver medal performance and like many other Senior level wrestlers around the world, can reset and look toward the future after a long training cycle.
In the 55 kg bronze match, Jenna Burkert faced Pinki Pinki from India, winning the bronze in with a 5-2 decision. She went up 5-0 and had to fend off some late attacks, but held on to make the podium on her second visit to the World Championships. She didn’t place in 2018 when she replaced Alli Ragan. In her repechage match this morning to make the bronze bout, she faced Romania’s Andreea Ana. Burkert controlled the economical match 4-0 deep in the second when she gave up a late takedown, but held on to win 4-2 and advance to the bronze match.
Hildebrandt, Molinari, Gray, and Amy Fearnside were in Group Two, starting their tournament today.
76 kg Adeline Gray will wrestle for her 6th world title, securing her third pin of the tournament in the semis. She also made history by tying legends Kristi Marano-Davis and Jordan Burroughs by assuring her 9th world medal, the most in USA Wrestling history. Gray will also have a chance to tie Jordan Burroughs with the all-time lead in world titles at six. She made it look easy against world class opponents, pinning Turkey’s Aysegul Ozbege in the first round with an arm bar at 1:17, India’s Kiran in the quarters at 2:33, and Egypt’s Samar Hamza in the second period, though Hamza showed lots of fight with Gray only holding a 1-1 lead at the break. The second period was all Gray though, as a leg attack turned into 4-pointer and the wrestlers never got up on their feet again. The 5-time world champion broke it open once she got on top with multiple turns and eventually gained the fall, her third of the day.
Sarah Hildebrandt, the #1 seed at 50 kg, dominated her way to the finals, a far different experience for her than she had in 2019 at 53 kg when she didn’t place at Worlds. The Olympic bronze medalist & 2018 world silver medalist outscored her opponents 32-1 en route to the finals, blowing through Ukraine’s Bohdana Yashchuk 10-0 in the first round, Germany’s Lisa Ersel 10-0 in the quarters, and the Russian Wrestling Federation’s Nadezhda Sokolova 12-1 in the semis. She secured all her wins with a similar recipe, getting takedowns with her signature slide-bys and singles, and finishing off opponents with her deadly leg lace, perhaps one of the most effective in the world.
At 65 kg, after two dominant wins in the first & second rounds over Tuvshinjargal (Mongolia) and Dinara Kadaeva Salikhova (Russian Wrestling Federation), respectively, Team USA’s Forrest Molinari faced 2018 world silver medalist France’s Koumba Larroque, winning the bout in the end 3-3. Molinari stubbornly persevered with her heavy-handed physical style through the entire match eventually getting a turn with 14 seconds on the clock to win it at end 3-3. Larroque seemed rattled by the aggressive style of Molinari that eventually wore her down, opening the door for the 3-time world teamer to score the points she needed to win the match. Molinari fell to Japan’s Miwa Morikawa 6-2 in the semis and will wrestle tomorrow for bronze. The American placed 5th at Worlds in 2018 and 2019.
Fearnside was eliminated in her Worlds debut, falling to Poland’s Katarzyna Krawczyk in the first round, an opponent who eventually fell in the semis, eliminating the American from the World Championships. For a competitor to be brought back into “repechage” the opponent they lose to has to make the finals in order for them to stay alive.
Japan leads the team race with 30, while the United States, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine are all tied for second with 25 each.
Hildebrandt, Molinari, and Gray will all wrestle their medal matches tomorrow at noon EST. It will stream live on FloWrestling.