From Media Reports

Close, but no cigar.

While critics of the United States’ men’s freestyle effort at the 2007 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan — where 211.5-pound bronze medalist Daniel Cormier won his country’s only medal — will point out it was America’s worst medal output in over 30 years, it should be pointed out how close the U.S. came to one of its better efforts at the Worlds.

For while Cormier’s medal was the fewest since the U.S. men’s freestyle team was shutout from the medal stand in 1975, it should be noted that five out of seven weights reached the bronze medal match — first-timers Doug Schwab (145.5), Joe Heskett (163) and 264.5-pound Tommy Rowlands (264.5) all settled for fifth place as did veteran Joe Williams (185) — and the Americans did win 18 of 29 matches as both Heskett and Williams reached the semifinal round.

That’s not that far off from 2006, when the U.S. won 17 of 23 matches, finished third as a team and saw four individuals claim medals.

“Overall, we qualified five weight classes for the Olympic Games,” said U.S. National coach Kevin Jackson, who will have at least three other international events to qualify the 121- and 132-pound weight classes. “That obviously was not our goal. We wanted to win all seven weight classes and win the tournament. Obviously, we’re a long ways from that. We need to continue to work, continue to get tougher and continue to get better. We need the commitment from everybody involved in our program. If we do that, we have a chance to do real well in Beijing.”

Cormier improved the most from 2006, when he went 0-1. In 2007, the 28-year-old native of Lafayette, La., clinched his first World medal when he defeated Alexey Krupnyakov of Kyrgystan, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0, in the bronze medal match, where Cormier scored both of his winning points on pushouts.

“Obviously, a bronze medal is not what you come here to do,” said Cormier, a five-time World team veteran whose highest previous international finish was fourth at the 2004 Olympics. “But to finally get over the hump ... being on so many World Teams and never actually getting to the medal stand, it feels good to finally know I can do it with hard work. Regardless of how many times you fall short, if you keep working it’s going to happen for you.”

Oddly, another Iranian ended Cormier’s gold medal hopes. After losing matches to currently retired Iranian wrestler Ali Reza Heydari in 2003, 2004 and 2006, Cormier suffered a quarterfinal loss to Saeid Abrahimi of Iran, 5-0, 2-1. In that bout, Cormier nearly forced a third period with a takedown with 36 seconds left in the second period before Abrahimi stepped over a Cormier gut wrench for a two-point exposure three seconds later.

“We’re really happy with Daniel and the way he fought back to finally win that bronze medal he had been supposed to get the last few years,” Jackson said. “Sometimes taking third is harder than taking first when you have to come back through the wrestlebacks. We’re excited about his performance and next year we can take that next step and make it to the finals.”

One other thing that was certain from the 2007 Worlds was that Russia will be the obvious team to beat after the Russians won six of the seven weights, added a bronze medal in the other weight and out-distanced the second-place country by a 68-40 margin. Cuba, meanwhile, finished two points ahead of the United States, 34-32, for third place in the team race.

The following is a breakdown of all seven U.S. wrestlers:

55K/121 pounds

Henry Cejudo, the 20-year-native of Phoenix, Ariz., wrestled and lost his only match in his inaugural Worlds, where he lost 1-0, 4-0 to Iranian Taghi Dadashi, 1-0, 4-0. After losing the first period, when he gave up a takedown with 49 seconds gone, Cejudo (Sunkist Kids) tried to overcome a 1-0 deficit in the second period and appeared to have Dadashi in a front chest lock before the Iranian countered the move and put Cejudo on his back with 35 seconds left.

Cejudo’s tournament then ended when Dadashi, a four-year World veteran, lost his next match to Rizvan Gadishiev of Belarus.

60K/132 pounds

Mike Zadick (Gator WC), a 2006 silver medalist, was an American wrestler who people looked to as a leader of this year’s team after last year’s performance. But things didn’t go as well this year for Zadick. The 29-year-old native of Great Falls, Mont., went 0-1 in Azerbaijan, where he lost his only match to Sait Prizreni of Albania, 1-1, 1-0.

Prizreni, whose previous high World finish was 16th in 1999, won the first period on a duck-under with 18 seconds left in the period after Zadick took a 1-0 lead on a pushout with eight seconds gone in the bout. The second period was settled on an overtime clinch, when Prizeni won the coin flip and eventually the match on a takedown with four seconds gone in overtime.

Zadick’s hopes for another medal ended when Prizeni, an eventual bronze medalist, lost his semifinal bout to Bulgaria’s Anatoli Guidea.

66K/145.5 pounds

Schwab (Gator WC), competing in his first World Championships, knew he had a long way to go to duplicate the American’s entry at this weight in 2006, when Bill Zadick won a gold medal in China. Schwab got a good start when the 30-year-old native of Osage, Iowa, won his first two bouts over Gentian Balashi of Australia, 4-0, 7-0 and Pedro Soto Cordero of Puerto Rico, 1-0, 1-0.

Unfortunately for Schwab, his quest for gold ended when he lost a quarterfinal to three-time World medalist Geandry Garzon of Cuba, 2-0, 4-1. Garzon, the eventual silver medalist, used two takedowns for the first-period victory, then added four separate moves to lead 4-0 in the second period before Schwab tallied his only point on a takedown with three seconds left.

Still Schwab found himself in the bronze medal match after he defeated Buyanjav Batzorig of Mongolia, 3-2, 1-0, in which a coin flip gave him the clinch advantage in the second period. But in the third-place match, Schwab lost to 2006 silver medalist Otar Tushishvili (Georgia), 4-1, 1-0. The double leg takedown was effective for the Georgian, who used the move for a four-point move in the first period, and another for the only point in the second.

74K/163 pounds

Heskett (Sunkist Kids) was also competing in his first World Championship and appeared to be having the best run when the 28-year-native of Warren, Ohio, won his first four matches, including a third-round victory over 2006 World silver medalist Asghar Bazrighaleh of Iran, 4-0, 0-4, 2-0 — where a fleeing penalty point against the Iranian clinched the upset — and a quarterfinal win over Hungarian Gabor Hatos, 1-0, 0-4, 2-0, where Heskett clinched the match with a snapdown and single-leg takedown in the final period.

The third period was not so kind to Heskett in the semifinal against Russian Mahach Murtazaliev, the 2005 World champ, who rallied from a first-period loss to win 1-3, 1-0, 3-1. After using a double with 52 seconds gone to win the first period, Heskett went scoreless in the second period. He then gave up two points in the final 22 seconds of the third period on a counter by the Russian and a pushout.

Heskett’s chance at a medal then ended when he lost to home-country favorite Chamsulvara Chamsulvarayev of Azerbaijan, 1-0, 3-1. Chamsulvarayev scored all his points on four takedowns, while Heskett’s final point came on a single with nine seconds left.


84K/185 pounds

Moving up a weight certainly did not bother Williams (Sunkist Kids), who entered his sixth World/Olympic-level competition with two previous bronze medals won at 163 pounds in 2001 and 2005. In fact, among his first three victories at the 2007 Worlds was a 2-0, 0-1, 1-0 second-round victory over World silver medalist Arpad Ritter of Hungary, who handed Williams his only loss in the 2005 Worlds. The deciding point in Williams’ 2007 meeting with the Hungarian was a single-leg takedown with 20 seconds left in the match.

Unfortunately, the 32-year-old native of Harvey, Ill., got a good look at the future of this weight when he lost his quarterfinal match 4-0, 4-0 to 21-year-old Russian Georgy Ketoev, the 2005 Junior World champ, who captured his first Senior gold medal later that day.

Williams fought back to beat David Bichinashvili of Germany, 1-0, 0-1, 1-0, in a consolation bout before losing his bronze medal match to 2006 bronze medalist Reza Yazdani of Iran, 1-0, 3-0. In the third-place match, a coin flip gave the Iranian the clinch and first period before Yazdani scored three points off a scramble in the opening 20 seconds of the second period.

96K/211.5 pounds

Cormier (Gator WC), who went 0-1 in 2006, made sure his 2007 Worlds visit was longer when he won his first two matches: a 6-0, 6-0 technical fall over Ian Wardell Australia and a 0-1, 1-0, 3-0 victory over Ruslan Sheykhov of Belarus. Cormier overcame the first-period loss to Sheykhov when he countered a shot for a second-period takedown, then scored all three of his points in the third period off a clinch advantage.

After losing to Abrahimi in the quarters, Cormier dominated Kiyotaka Kodaira of Japan, 3-0, 6-0, in a consolation match in which Cormier needed only 28 seconds and a five-point throw to end the match.

120K/264.5 pounds

Rowlands (Sunkist) jumped out to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Mexican Lawrence Mendoza in his first-ever Worlds match, but soon lost his first bout to Cuban Alexis Rodriquez, 2-0, 1-0, in the second round. But because Rodriquez reached the finals, Rowlands got another chance for a medal and nearly made the most of it.

In a pair of consolation victories, Rowlands was forced to go three periods as he defeated Martin Siddiqui of Germany, 1-3, 1-0, 3-0, and Bozhidar Boyadzhiev of Bulgaria, 1-0, 1-2, 3-0. Rowlands used three takedowns to capture the deciding period against Siddiqui, before he used a coin flip for a three-point move off a clinch to defeat the Bulgarian.

That would be the final World success for Rowlands, who then lost his bronze medal match to 2006 World and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Artur Taymazov (Uzebekistan), 3-0, 6-0.

“I always thought I could compete at this level and now I know that I can,” Rowlands said. “This experience is invaluable. It gives you a new benchmark every time you compete at a level like this.”

(The majority of notes and quotes from this story were provided by theMat.com.)