WRESTLING Preview: Burroughs and Snyder lead U.S. entries in the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov ranking tourney

Olympic champion Kyle Snyder of the U.S. (at right; Photo: UWW)

The second United World Wrestling ranking tournament for men’s and women’s Freestyle comes this week with the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov tournament in Ruse (BUL). USA Wrestling has sent a large squad of 18 men and 16 women for what promises to be an outstanding test.

According to the published entries, four Olympic champions will be on the mats in the men’s competitions:

● 74 kg: Jordan Burroughs (USA) ~ 2012 Olympic gold at 70 kg
● 86 kg: Hassan Yazdani (IRI) ~ 2016 Olympic gold at 74 kg
● 97 kg: Kyle Snyder (USA) ~ 2016 Olympic gold at 97 kg
● 125 kg: Taha Akgul (TUR) ~ 2016 Olympic gold at 125 kg

In addition, Georgia’s 125 kg World Champion from 2017 and 2018, Geno Petriashvili, will be in action.

The U.S. squad features four additional World Championships medal winners:

● 57 kg: Tom Gilman ~ 2017 Worlds silver medalist
● 61 kg: Joe Colon ~ 2018 Worlds bronze medalist
● 70 kg: James Green ~ 2017 Worlds silver medalist
● 125 kg: Nick Gwiazdowski ~ 2018 Worlds bronze medalist

The women’s entries include three reigning World Champions:

● 57 kg: Ningning Rong (CHN) ~ 2018 World Champion
● 62 kg: Taybe Yusein (BUL) ~ 2018 World Champion
● 65 kg: Petra Olli (FIN) ~ 2018 World Champion

The USA Wrestling women’s squad features three Worlds medal winners:

● 53 kg: Sarah Hildebrandt ~ 2018 Worlds silver medalist
● 62 kg: Mallory Velte ~ 2018 Worlds bronze medalist
● 68 kg: Tamyra Mensah-Stock ~ 2018 Worlds bronze medalist

In all, the tournament has nine men’s wrestlers ranked in the top three of the UWW World Rankings and 10 women. Look for the results link here.