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2003 World Greco-Roman Championships Proves Unlucky for US, With 13^th Place Finish, No Medals

Article by Mark Palmer

Luck did not seem to be on the side of the US wrestlers at the 2003 World Greco-Roman Championships held October 2-5, 2003 in Creteil, France.

Unlucky 13th. The US Greco grapplers placed a disappointing thirteenth in the overall team standings, earning fourteen team points. By contrast, both the US women’s and men’s freestyle teams placed second at their World Championships the month before in New York City. The Republic of Georgia won the Greco team title; Russia placed second.

A medal-less US. Not a single US wrestler earned a medal at the Greco Worlds. At the Freestyle Championships, all seven US women won a medal (two bronze, four silver, and one gold for Kristie Marano)… with two of the men taking home silver (Cael Sanderson and Kerry McCoy).

Gardner knocked out in the first elimination round.   2000 Olympic gold medallist Rulon Gardner watched his chances for a 2003 World Championship evaporate on Friday when he lost to Khassan Baroev of Russia 3-0. Gardner had started off slowly and trailed by three points at the end of the first period, and could not maneuver his opponent.

“I was trying to find a way to get points out of him, I was trying to set up a series of gut wrenches but I couldn’t manage it,” Gardner said. “He had techniques that I had never seen before. Everything I’d been watching of him on video tapes turned out different.”

Gardner added, “I’m going to stay here, educate myself and learn some more about wrestling. I’m a student of the sport, there are always things I can pick up here that can help me.”

Despite this loss, Gardner managed to place tenth in the overall competition, qualifying the US at the 120 kg super heavyweight class.

Gruenwald shoulders an injury. Jim Gruenwald, the US wrestler who made it the furthest in the competition, suffered a dislocated left shoulder in his semifinals match with two-time world champion Armen Nazarian of Bulgaria, and had to take an injury default.   Refusing a stretcher, Gruenwald was able to leave the mat on his own power, taking the time to shake the hand of his opponent. Gruenwald injury defaulted the bronze medal match to Romania’s Eusebiu Diaconu, thus taking a fourth-place finish.

“Jim wrestled one of his greatest matches this morning,” USA Wrestling National Teams Coach Steve Fraser told TheMat.com. “He had the best guy in the world on the ropes. Unfortunately, he dislocated his shoulder as he was defending the throw. You could see he was fighting so hard from being turned with the score tied (1-1 at the time). Jim is a true warrior and gave everything he could against the World and Olympic champion.”

Disappointing Olympic qualifying. The US team was able to qualify only three of seven weight classes for the Olympics. In addition to Jim Gruenwald and Rulon Gardner, Brad Vering qualified the US at 84 kg with a fifth-place finish. Vering won his pool competition, but fell short in the quarterfinals to Norway’s Fritz Aanes in overtime 3-2.

A top-ten finish was required to qualify a particular weight. The remaining weights will need to be qualified at a future event; the final qualifying tournament is in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in mid-March 2004.

For the other US wrestlers who failed to place, it was a matter of not being able to get out of the pool and move on to the next round of competition. Here’s what happened:

At 55 kg, Brandon Paulson went 1-1, placing second in his pool, losing by the score of 5-0 to Olympic and World Champion Lazaro Rivas of Cuba who eventually won the bronze medal.

Kevin Bracken, Team USA’s 66 kg representative, also went 1-1, losing in a 3-1 overtime match with Korea’s In Sub Kim who eventually finished in sixth place.

TC Dantzler drew a tough opening match in facing eventual silver medallist Konstantin Schneider of Germany… and coming out on the losing end 4-1. Dantzler came back to beat Denmark’s Mark Madsen 4-1, finishing second in his pool.

Justin Ruiz, who was wrestling in place of an injured Garrett Lowney in the 96 kg class, suffered the same fate as his US teammates, coming in second in his pool with a 1-1 record. In his second pool match, Ruiz was at the losing end of a technical fall by Poland’s Marek Sitnik 10-0 at 2:03.

“We need to regroup and get ready for Greece (host nation for the 2004 Olympics),”    said Coach Fraser. “This World Championships goes to show you how the playing field has changed. There are ten to twelve countries in the team championship race and several of the top countries did not qualify more than three weight classes. It was one of the most competitive Greco-Roman Championships ever.”

A bounty of first-time World Champs. Most of the Greco World Champions crowned this fall in France were new to the gold medal ranks. Here’s a weight-by-weight recap:

55 kg: Seven was a lucky number for Dariusz Jablonski of Poland, who won his first gold medal in seven tries (including appearances at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics) by edging Korea’s Im Dae Wong 6-5 in the finals.

60 kg: Armen Nazarian was a repeat World Champion, defeating Roberto Monzon of Cuba by the score of 6-2. Being at the top is a familiar place for the Bulgarian; in addition to winning the title in 2002, Narazian won gold at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.

66 kg: In this weight class, two relative newcomers battled in the finals: 24-year-old Manuchari Kvirkvelia of Georgia beat Ukraine’s Armen Vardanyan in the finals 5-2. For the Georgian, it was only his second time at the Worlds; it was the first appearance for Vardanyan, who is only 20 years old.

74 kg: Alexei Gloushkov of Russia won his first gold medal by defeating Germany’s Konstantin Schneider in the finals 3-0. Gloushkov had won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics.

84 kg: For the first time, an Israeli wrestler earned gold in Greco. Gotcha Tsitsiashvili defeated 2001 and 2002 World Champion Ara Abrahamian of Sweden 2-0.   Tsitsiashvili, a 30-year-old veteran, had wrestled in the past for the USSR and the Republic of Georgia. This was his eighth appearance at the World Championships.

96 kg: The finals featured Egyptian superstar Karam Gaber taking on Sweden’s Martin Lidberg. The Swede won the title by the score of 3-0. Although he had been competing at the Worlds since 1993, it was 30-year-old Lidberg’s first gold medal.

120 kg: For the first time in three years, there wasn’t an American on the gold medal stand. Twenty-year-old Russian Khassan Baroev scored a 3-1 victory over Hungary’s Mihaly Deak-Bardos.

Here’s to the medallists at the 2003 World Greco-Roman Championships!

55 kg/121 lbs

Gold: Darlusz Jablonski, Poland

Silver: Im Dae-Wong, Korea

Bronze: Lazaro Rivas, Cuba

60 kg/132 lbs

Gold: Armen Nazarian, Bulgaria

Silver: Roberto Monzon, Cuba

Bronze: Eusebiu Diaconu, Romania

66 kg/145.5 lbs

Gold: Manuchari Kvirkvelia, Georgia

Silver: Armen Vardanyan, Ukraine

Bronze: Levente Fueredy, Hungary

74 kg/163 lbs

Gold: Alexei Gloushkov, Russia

Silver: Konstantin Schneider, Germany

Bronze: Jin Soo Kim, Korea

84 kg/185 lbs

Gold: Gotcha Tsitsiashvili, Israel

Silver: Ara Abrahamian, Sweden

Bronze: Attila Batky, Slovakia

96 kg/221.5 lbs

Gold: Martin Lidberg, Sweden

Silver: Karam Gaber, Egypt

Bronze: Ramaz Nozadze, Georgia

120 kg/264.5 lbs

Gold: Khassan Baroev, Russia

Silver: Mihaly Deak-Bardos, Hungary

Bronze: Georgi Tsurtsumia, Kazakhstan