Mortimer, Makoyed get semifinal pins, Jones to go for bronze at U23 World Championships

TIRANA, Albania –Sage Mortimer and Yelena Makoyed powered to semifinal pins over Japanese opponents to cap a stellar opening day for the U.S. women at the 2024 U23 World Championships.

Mortimer set the tone for the semifinal session at Feti Borova Sports Hall with a come-from-behind victory over defending 50 kg champion Umi Ito. Mortimer was down big on the scoreboard early after giving up three takedowns and a couple sets of exposure points, but she stayed scrappy. On Ito’s final turn attempt, Mortimer stepped over to catch Ito on her back and get a pin with 33 seconds to go in the first period. The score was 12-4 at the time of the fall.

Ito was no doubt Mortimer’s largest obstacle in the bracket. In addition to being the returning champion in the weight class, Ito is an age-group World champion at the U17, U20 and U23 levels who had never lost during World Championships competition.

Mortimer finished with a 3-0 record and a 100% bonus rate on the day. She scored technical fall wins over Khrystyna Basych of Slovakia and Laura Ganikyzy of Kazakhstan during the morning session.

Makoyed provided the bookend to Mortimer as the last match of the session. She pulled away from Nodoka Yamamoto in the second period of her 76 kg semifinal, eventually securing a pin by power half with 14 seconds left in the match. Makoyed had reached technical fall status, with a lead of 13-2, at the time of the fall.

The pin was Makoyed’s second of the tournament and third bonus point win in three matches wrestled. She picked up a pin in 1:59 on Mariia Orlevych of Ukraine in the quarterfinals and put up an 11-0 technical fall on Alina Yertostik of Kazakhstan in her opener.

Gold medal match opponents for the U.S. duo are Individual Neutral Athlete Natalia Pudova for Mortimer and China’s Shuiyan Cheng for Makoyed. Pudova doesn’t have any notable international credentials. Cheng was a U20 World bronze medalist in 2019.

Also competing in the semifinals was 2023 U20 World bronze medalist Amani Jones at 55 kg. Jones appeared to be in control against Mexico’s Zeltzin Hernandez Guerra, leading 5-2 going into the second period. In a turn of fortune, Jones was pulled underneath from an overhook while chasing a single leg and pinned 34 seconds into the second period.

Jones drops down to a bronze medal match against an opponent yet to be determined. She finished with a 3-1 record and two pins on the day.

Brooklyn Hays got the result she needed at 68 kg with 2024 Olympian and two-time defending U23 World champion Nesrin Bas making the finals. Hays has been pulled into the repechage round and will have a chance to wrestle back for a bronze medal. Her repechage opponent is Luciana Beda of Moldova.

During session one, Hays defeated Aleah Nickel of Canada and Beibit Seidualy of Kazakhstan by decision before falling to Bas in the quarterfinal round.

The women’s freestyle competition resumes at 10:30 a.m. local time tomorrow with the group one (50-55-59-68-76 kg) repechage and the group two (53-57-62-65-72 kg) qualification rounds. For those following along live, Tirana, Albania, is located six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

Updated brackets and match-by-match results are available on UWW Arena. A live broadcast of the event is available for the U.S. market at FloWrestling.com.

Revisit the details of each match from today in our day three match notes article.