Day 6: The most surprising day of the World Championships

Throw away all predictions today. Who would have predicted the finals of the sixth day of the World Championships in Tashkent. Well the athletes maybe… not even that. With the reputation of Mayra Aguiar, she can be in any final, no one would be surprised, but the tripe Olympic medallist and double World Champion had a tough road to go for this Championship and wasn’t expected to get this far in the tournament.

Still Aguiar managed to reach the final with a sensational victory against Olympic Champion Shori Hamada who was thrown flat on her back. In the semi final Aguiar bested Alina Boehm, with not too much effort. Boehm though had a sensational day as well with a victory against Anna-Maria Wagner as one of the highlights.

China has got a finalist for the first time since 2017 and for the first in U78kg in this century. Yufeng Yin was the finalist in 1999, this time it is Ma Zhenzhao who defeated Ukrainian talent Yelyzaveta Lytvynenko who is the Junior European Champion and just 18. Ma became the winner of her pool where former world champion Malonga failed to make the shift and Ma defeated Pacut in the quarters. Lytvynenko is the other sensation who won her pool with Inbar Lanir, Loriana Kuka and Guusje Steenhuis who all didn’t get a repechage match after their loss. No it was Lytvynenko who defeated Giorgio Stangherlin who performed really well. Never China met with Brazil in a World Championships final. Aguiar met with Xiuli Yang ten years ago in the Masters final U78kg. Can you imagine the successes of Aguiar who on her way for a third world title. Mind you…. Ma defeated Aguiar at the world championships in Baku in 2018, a revenge match for Ma’s loss in Hohhot that same year.

Uzbekistan is on fire with a second gold medal chance this week. Never Uzbekistan had two World Championships finalist, let alone two world titles. Today is the second chance as the unseeded Muzaffarbek Turoboyev wrestled himself into the final with exceptional energy and once he got his grip on the belt the threw away everybody. Turoboyev defeated Michael Korrel who seemed on his way as seeded player to a place in the final but Turoboyev was unstoppable. The ease Korrel won his match against Nikiforov, he got knocked off by Turoboyev in the semi. Turoboyev’s opponent is another unseeded, Canadian Kyle Reyes. So not El Nahas, who can still take bronze, but Reyes who outperformed today and became the winner in a pool with Paltchik, Batkhuyag, Sulamanidze. Reyes surprised Zelym Kotsoiev in the semi final. The Azeri and former Junior World Champion had beaten double World Champion Jorge Fonseca in the quarter final. Kentaro Iida, Nikoloz Sherazadishvili, Varlam Liparteliani, Islam Bozboyev, all victims in the preliminaries.

Both Reyes and Turoboyev never competed against each-other. El Nahas defeated Turoboyev but last year his development was outstanding. Who will stop him, only Reyes can to prevent Uzbekistan from a second world title this week.