Day two ends..

Well day two has come to an end. Some super exciting matches again. Our men had a great start to the day. Saeed went 1 and 1, with a win vs Egypt followed by a super close loss to fedorishyn of the Ukraine (last years Olympic silver medalist). Fedorishyn ended up lossing in the semis to the eventual world champion in the third round on a clinche! Thats how close things are...
Trav had a pretty tough day, started out with a great match against Mongolia but then lost a really close dissapointing match to Venezula. He wrestled hard the entire match, yet came up on the wrong side of a couple of zone calls. And a long delay while the score clock was getting reset. Long story short had the match followed a continous flow, I am pretty sure that would have favored travis's style of wrestling and fitness. His opponent was very tactical and defensive which, in this instance, payed off for him. I am sure travis would love to have that match back.
Arjan had a very good day. His first match of Armenia is actually a Russian (from Ossetia) who had transferred nationality for the worlds. Arjan did a great job of meeting and redirecting the attacks of his opponent. He won a three round decision, and then went on to beat the Iraq wrestler in his second match. That match was never in jeopardy... Arjan look in control from the outset and picked his opponent appart. He lost to the eventual silver medalist from Iran in the quarter finals. The first round was extremely close with some solid counter attack opportunities on arjans part. The second round the iranian scored a takedeown turn to take a lead that was to big to overcome. In his final match he was out positioned by the Georgian wrestler who won a 1-0, 1-0 match. Overall, I believe the day had some amazing matches.

Tomorrow we start our tournament. Rushton has drawn China first match. This is not one of their proven competitors at 48kgs, so we really dont know what to expect here. As a group the Chinese athletes have proven to typically be very physical and at times abrasive competitors. I think this is a match Linds is definately ready to face. We dont want to take anyone too lightly, or over estimate anyone. A most likely second match is Sakamoto of japan (3rd last year). Linds lost to sakamoto at the Golden Grand prix in baku, but i felt she was very competitive. We watched a number of matches tonight and I know she has the tools to compete well against the japanese opponent. She will need to stay composed and be ready for a tough match.
Jessie has drawn Poland first. They wrestled against each other a few months ago in Germany. I hope Jessie goes out with her game plan to be physical and wrestle with some pressure. I believe if she is aggressive she will prove to much for her polish opponent. the Polish women team are notorious for wrestling very tactically and trying to tie and control position on their opponents. Jessie will need to stay aggressive and not get frustrated or in a rush. She will make openings if she stays active. Her next match will likely be Ukraine ( a former junior world champion) they have split decisions this year in there two meetings. So the rubber match at the worlds sounds very exciting. The ukrainian puts together flurries of action but can begin to unravel if you stay on her. She is quite solid and might be the top (other) athlete on Jessies side of the draw.
Evan has drawn Greece in his first match tomorrow.

Our competition moves into full swing from this point forward. We have three athletes weighing in tomorrow in the morning. All three appear in a very good state here tonight at the hotel. We had our medical support staff make the 45 minute drive to our homebase to do a bit of recovery work on our girls competing tomorrow and trying to freshen up our kids making weigh in the morning. We have a great support team here who help to keep the athletes feeling good and keep the rest of us smiling... Id also like to mention what a great job John Dawson is doing as our team leader. He was extremely tired... he has done a number of shuttles here and there today, including a early morning shuttle with our weigh in people and a late night shuttle with our med staff.

All for now... We need to get some sleep for tomorrow. Having fun as usual!
Wish you were here...