John Fuller/USA Wrestling
Izmir, Turkey – The final three U.S. Greco-Roman wrestlers weighed-in on Tuesday evening as the final step towards competing on Wednesday in the 2005 World University Games at the Ozel Yamanlar High School Sports Hall.
At 60 kg/132 lbs., Jeremiah Davis (El Cajon, Calif./Northern Michigan Univ./Sunkist Kids) will face Ali Ashkani Agboloag of Iran in the pigtail round.
Agboloag is a proven competitor, appearing in the last two Olympic Games, including a fifth-place finish in 2000, and winning the World University Championships in 2002 and 2004.
Other top wrestlers at 60 kg are Roberto Monzon of Cuba, an Olympic silver medalist and three-time World medalist, Bunyamin Emik of Turkey, a two-time World Cup silver medalist, David Bedinadze of Georgia, who placed third in the European Championships, and Jaanek Lips of Estonia, who placed fifth in last year’s World University Championships.
Cheney Haight (Orem, Utah/Northern Michigan Univ.) will face Rene Zimmerman of Germany in a pigtail match at 74 kg/163 lbs. to lead off his competition. If he is able to win that match, he will have the winner of a pigtail match between 2004 Olympian Radoslaw Truszkowski of Poland and Cedric Lafon of France.
Other top competitors in Haight’s weight class include 2004 Olympian Vladimir Shatskikh of Ukraine, Juha Salminen of Finland, who placed fifth in the 2004 World University Championships, 2003 Junior World silver medalist Otari Pheradze of Georgia, Edgar Babayan of Armenia, who placed fifth in the 2005 Junior World Championships, and Tsukasa Tsurumaki of Japan, who placed third in this year’s Asian Championships.
The final U.S. wrestler to weigh-in on Tuesday was 2005 U.S. World Team member Justin Ruiz (Colorado Springs, Colo./Univ. of Nebraska/New York AC) at 96 kg/211.5 lbs.
Ruiz will match up with Zamprakas Evangellos of Greece in a pigtail round bout. If he wins that bout, he will face the winner of another pigtail match between Vidal Vincent of France and Guram Pherselidze of Georgia in the round of 16.
Top competitors at 96 kg include Antoine Jaoude of Brazil, a 2004 Olympian in freestyle, 2004 World University Championships silver medalist Balasz Kiss of Hungary, Valdas Sidlauskas of Lithuania, who placed fourth in the 2004 European Championships, Heiki Nabi of Estonia, who placed fifth in the 2005 Junior World Championships, 2005 Asian champion Margulan Assembekov of Kazakhstan and Andrzej Deberny of Poland, who placed seventh in last year’s World University Championships.
Preliminary competition will begin at 10:00 a.m. local time in Turkey. TheMat.com will provide complete coverage and results.
Wrestling Gear
