BELGRADE, Serbia – The USA won three matches on Friday in Greco-Roman at the World Wrestling Championships at Stark Arena on Friday.
Of the seven athletes who have competed so far for the USA, only Joe Rau at 97 kg still has a chance to battle for a medal. Rau had a 1-1 record on Saturday, winning his opening bout over Filip Smetko of Croatia, 4-1, then losing to Olympic and World champion Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia by technical fall, 9-0.
When Aleksanyan won his semifinal match on Friday night, Rau was pulled back into Saturday morning’s repechage round, which gives him a chance to wrestle back for a bronze medal.
Rau will face Nicu Ojog of Romania in repechage on Saturday morning. If he geats Ojog, he has another repechage match against Artur Omarov of Czechia. A win over Omarov would advance Rau to Saturday night’s bronze medal bout against Mindaugas Venckaitis of Lithuania.