Kyle SNYDER (USA) mounts a late comeback to deny Japan's rising star Arash YOSHIDA (JPN) in the 97kg final to win his fifth world title.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan (October 30) -- Kyle SNYDER (USA) ended up as the survivor of the arduous gauntlet that was the Freestyle 97kg division at the World Championships. Just barely.
Snyder fended off a fierce challenge from rising star Arash YOSHIDA (JPN), scoring two takedowns in the final minute for a dramatic 4-4 victory in the final on Friday in Astana to successfully defend his title and take home a fifth career gold overall.
“The end of that match was crazy,” Snyder said. “I can’t believe it honestly.”
Snyder’s victory somewhat overshadowed a remarkable triumph by young teammate Bo BASSETT (USA), who won the 65kg gold in the other Freestyle final, two weeks after failing to even medal at the World U23 Championships in Las Vegas.
The 97kg final was always going to be the marquee event of these championships. The question was: which of the four current or past Olympic champions, or whom among the bevy of world champions and medalists, would still be around to compete for the gold?
In the end it came down to the experienced 30-year-old Snyder and the powerful but wily 22-year-old Yoshida.
Snyder scored the second of his second-period takedowns with 18 seconds left to snatch the victory from the young Japanese before a raucous crowd at Astana's Barys Arena and add to the golds he won in 2015, 2017, 2022 and 2025.
By making the final in one of the deepest weight classes ever seen at a World Championships, Snyder also raised his collection of world medals to nine overall -- not to mention his 2016 Olympic gold and 2021 Olympic silver.
The victory was the Snyder’s second in three career meetings over two years against Yoshida. Snyder soundly defeated the 22-year-old Japanese in the semifinals at last year’s World Championships in Zagreb after losing to him earlier in the year at the Tirana Ranking Series.
Yoshida, who earned a bronze in Zagreb, appeared to be on the road to revenge on Friday when he took a 4-0 lead into the final minute, scoring an activity point and two stepouts, often by outmaneuvering the veteran Snyder. Yoshida's fourth point came on an unsuccessful challenge by the U.S. to gain a stepout after a hardy exchange at the edge.
“I was getting my butt kicked,” Snyder said. “He was controlling the tie[-up] and pushing me around and I was up out of my stance. It was not good for 5 minutes and 10 seconds.
“They say you have to finish the race, you can’t just start it.”
Snyder began his comeback with a single-leg trip that sent Yoshida sprawling to the mat and came dangerously close to being a 4-pointer. Still down by 2, Snyder used a snap down to spin behind and secure the winning points.
“It was shameful. I didn't do well finishing off my takedowns,” a disappointed Yoshida said. “Everything is ruined by the final match.”
Snyder's victory kept Yoshida, who was born and raised in Japan to an Iranian father and Japanese mother, from becoming Japan’s heaviest gold medalist at a global championships.
That mark remains at 74kg -- achieved by Kota TAKAHASHI (JPN) at last year’s World Championships and Jiichiro DATE (JPN) at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, both in Freestyle.
Just to get to the final, Yoshida and Snyder both had to defeat Olympic champion rivals who had previously notched wins over them.
In Yoshida’s case, he scored a dramatic come-from-behind fall over Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN) after first knocking off another former Olympic champion in Hassan YAZDANI (IRI). Snyder ousted longtime rival Abdulrashid SADULAEV (RUS).
Both Sadulaev and Yazdani ended up taking the bronze medals; ironically by the same 5-0 score in near carbon-copy matches. They posed together for photos afterwards.
Sadulaev, facing Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL), took a 3-0 lead in the first period with an activity point and a single-leg takedown, then added another activity point and a stepout in the second.
Sadulaev said his preparations were set back by a recent knee injury, which showed when he visibly tired during his quarterfinal loss to Snyder.
“I was doing just fine, but the injury threw me off track a bit,” Sadulaev said. “I think I fell a bit short on competitions and physical preparation.”
The victory gave Sadulaev, a six-time world champion and two-time Olympic medalist, his eighth world medal and first bronze. In fact, it was his first bronze in any international competition since the 2013 Golden Grand Prix in Baku.
For the record, Sadulaev officially has a fifth-place finish from the 2023 World Championships, in which he lost by injury default in the semifinals to Tazhudinov while trailing 9-2, then defaulted what would have been bronze-medal match with Snyder.
“We'll do everything we can to get a seventh gold medal next year,” Sadulaev said.
Yazdani, who moved up 97kg this year after dominating at both 74kg and 86kg, used his power to add four stepouts to an activity point to defeat Tazhunidov.
The victory gave the 31-year-old Yazdani the eighth world medal of his career dating back to 2015, which includes three world titles, with one gold and two silvers at the Olympics.
Snyder said he was honored to share the podium with those two.
“They’re just monsters,” Snyder said. “They inspired me in many, many ways. They are a huge part of my life. They’re my friends, too.”
At 65kg, Bassett’s relentless and feverish pace proved too much for 2023 world bronze medalist Vazgen TEVANYAN (ARM) as the 20-year-old motored his way to the senior title with an impressive 9-1 victory.
Bassett broke open a close match with seven unanswered points in the second period to add to the world U20 title that he won in August. He also has world U17 gold from 2021.
“I think it comes down to all the years of hard work,” Bassett said. “I’m young for the senior-level division, this is my third World Championships of this summer and fall, so lots of competitions, lot of learning lessons, ups and downs.
“It’s a dream come true, and I just never thought I couldn’t.”
Bassett’s self-described “machine-gun” style extricated him from an early predicament. Tevanyan was on the verge of locking Bassett in a cradle when the U.S. wrestler managed to limit the damage to a stepout.
“Cradles are folkstyle, so I spend a lot of time with cradles, defending them in the room with all my stud partners and trying to hit them offensively, so I’m very comfortable there,” Bassett said. “And one [point] was the best-case scenario at that point. I didn’t want to give up anything else in that dangerous situation, but I made him wrestle and a lot of energy was used on his part.”
That expending of energy trying to keep up with ever-moving Bassett gradually and noticeably took a toll on Tevanyan, who surrendered a takedown to Bassett with two seconds left in the second period.
Bassett relentlessly keep the pressure on and deked and swooped this way and that to chalk up three takedowns. As perhaps a sign of Tevanyan’s frustration trying to keep up, he was assessed a 1-point penalty point for a head slap.
“That’s where I like to get my opponents to, I want to get them to that point,” Bassett said about tiring them out. “It’s very hard, it’s a style that’s very demanding. But I think the fans enjoy it. The fans were loud and they love good, intense wrestling, action, and lot of pace and pressure. I’ll always going to wrestle that way, machine-gun mindset.”
Bassett’s path to the final was made somewhat smoother when two opponents, who may have matched his style better than the 28-year-old Tevanyan, were eliminated in razor-close quarterfinals.
Defending champion Rahman AMOUZAD (IRI) was assessed a controversial one-point penalty with four seconds left that gave Tevanyan a 3-2 victory, while Asian champion SUJEET (IND) fell 3-3 on a late takedown to Abdulmazhid KUDIEV (TJK).
Amouzad came through the repechage to defeat Shamil MAMEDOV (BUL) for one of the 65kg bronzes, scoring three stepouts before getting 2 with a counterlift during a late scramble to win 5-4.
Abasgadzhi MAGOMEDOV (RUS) took home the other 65kg bronze with a nail-biting 3-2 win over Kudiev, who in 2024 became just the second Tajikstan wrestler to win a world medal when he took a bronze at 70kg.
Magomedov was leading 2-0 when, in the final seconds, Kudiev hit a counterlift for two, only for Magomedov to reverse at the buzzer. There was no challenge.
RESULTS
61kg (27 entries)
SF 1: Zavur UGUEV (RUS) df. Zelimkhan ABAKAROV (ALB), 3-0
SF 2: Ahmad JAVAN (IRI) df. Assyl AITAKYN (KAZ), 3-1
65kg (32 entries)
GOLD: Bo BASSETT (USA) df. Vazgen TEVANYAN (ARM), 9-1
BRONZE: Rahman AMOUZAD (IRI) df. Shamil MAMEDOV (BUL), 5-4
BRONZE: Abasgadzhi MAGOMEDOV (RUS) df. Abdulmazhid KUDIEV (TJK), 3-2
70kg (24 entries)
SF 1: Ibragim IBRAGIMOV (RUS) df. Tulga TUMUR OCHIR (MGL), 3-2
SF 2: Ernazar AKMATALIEV (KGZ) df. Zain RETHERFORD (USA), 3-2
86kg (41 entries)
SF 1: Arsenii DZHIOEV (AZE) df. Vladimeri GAMKRELIDZE (GEO), 9-1
SF 2: Kyle DAKE (USA) df. Ibragim KADIEV (RUS), 6-3
97kg (29 entries)
GOLD: Kyle SNYDER (USA) df. Arash YOSHIDA (JPN), 4-4
BRONZE: Abdulrashid SADULAEV (RUS) df. Zbigniew BARANOWSKI (POL), 5-0
BRONZE: Hassan YAZDANI (IRI) df. Akhmed TAZHUDINOV (BRN), 5-0
125kg (30 entries)
SF 1: Abdulla KURBANOV (RUS) df. Giorgi MESHVILDISHVILI (AZE), 5-0
SF 2: Amir Hossein ZARE (IRI) df. Wyatt HENDRICKSON (USA) by TS, 10-0, 3:53
Senior World Championships • Astana, Kazakhstan