Arujau to men’s freestyle semifinals, Burroughs, Taylor in repechage hunt at World Championships

TIRANA, Albania – The U.S. men’s freestyle team moved 2023 World champion Vito Arujau into the semifinal round at the 2024 Senior World Championships during session one of wrestling on Wednesday at Tirana’s Feti Borova Sports Hall.

Arujau, the defending World champion at 61 kg, won two tight matches during the morning session. He scored a takedown in the final minute to edge India’s Udit Udit in the opening round. In the quarterfinals, Arujau capitalized with a second period takedown-to-leg lace combination as he ousted Azamat Tuskaev of Serbia, 6-3.

2024 U20 World champion Masanosuke Ono of Japan will meet Arujau in an elite semifinal this evening. Ono defeated Tokyo Olympic champion Zaur Uguev by eight points in the opening round and followed with a pair of technical falls to make the semis.

Olympic champion and six-time World champion Jordan Burroughs defeated 2016 Olympian Zelimkhan Khadjiev of France and Magomet Evloev of Tajikistan with controlled wins before falling in the quarterfinals, 6-4, to Iran’s Mohammad Nokhodilarimi. This was a rematch of the 2021 and 2022 World finals, both won by Burroughs.

The most anticipated match of the tournament between Olympic champions David Taylor of the U.S. and Individual Neutral Athlete Abdulrashid Sadulaev went in favor of the other guy at 92 kg. Sadulaev scored three go-behind takedowns, two off his own snaps and one off a Taylor attack, to control the match to a 7-0 finish. Sadulaev advanced to the semifinals where he will face two-time World champion Kamran Ghasempour of Iran in another premier showdown.

Burroughs needs a Nokhodilarimi win, and Taylor needs Sadulaev win, tonight to be pulled into the repechage round and have a chance for bronze.

Two-time World medalist James Green posed a 1-1 record during the morning session and was eliminated from a repechage match following the quarterfinal results. He closed a 5-2 decision over 2024 Pan American silver medalist Peiman Biabani of Canada to begin his day at 70 kg. Green took a 4-0 lead on Akaki Kemertelidze of Georgia before giving up 10-straight points in the round-of-16 loss. Kemertelidze lost in the quarters, taking Green out of the tournament.  

The Senior World Championships continue at 4:45 p.m. local time with the men’s freestyle semifinals, followed by the women’s freestyle medal matches at 6 p.m. For those planning to follow along live, Tirana, Albania, is located five 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 U.S. match from today in our day three match notes article.