The “major” training camp for the 2018 US Senior World Team began earlier today at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. As mentioned last week, we expect to have updates from camp as well as an all-new Coach Lindland’s Report and insights from some of the athletes.
One of those athletes will be G’Angelo Hancock (97 kg, Sunkist), who, unless you’ve been hiding out in a cave in Thailand — won the 2018 Wladyslaw Pytlasinski Memorial in Warsaw over the weekend. Of course, Hancock’s gold wasn’t even the lead story. Nah, it was his 28-second destruction of Artur Aleksanyan (ARM, world no. 5), the three-time World/2016 Olympic champ.
Right away, most wondered, Well, what does this mean for Hancock? That’s easy. First of all, the throw-to-pin that vanquished Aleksanyan sure indicates that Hancock’s go-to maneuver can work against the best this planet has to offer. Aleksanyan pummeled in and got wide on his right leg; Hancock’s left leg resided in the Armenian’s zone; with Aleksanyan’s head not on his underhook side, Hancock’s positional leverage increased mightily, so he clasped around the back and with zero hesitation began his movement. From then on it was near academic. If Hancock had tried to set his feet and launch, the result is likely not a first-period fall. Instead, he sagged, pulled, and advanced on his attack to take out one of the sport’s most dominant and recognizable competitors.
The win over Aleksanyan — and remember, it was just one of four victories for Hancock in Poland — also demonstrated an applied education. Here’s how: when Hancock and Aleksanyan met in the round-of-16 at last year’s Worlds, inexperience stood as the main divide between the two. Obviously. Hancock was only down by three entering the second period and he came on hot the rest of the way. While it was encouraging that Hancock was not intimidated, his heightened, if not downright angry approach cost him by allowing openings for Aleksanyan that led to what was an eventual tech-fall loss. Before that, and even to an extent during, Hancock was right there with him. On Friday, Hancock started the match confidently, which is why he was able to lock on his attack and see it through. Only those who are unsure hesitate, a valuable lesson the 21-year-old undoubtedly now carries with him.
But it is the maturity in sealing the deal why Hancock’s entire tournament is important. Nikolai Bayryakov (BUL), a bronze medalist at the 2017 Euros and fifth at the Olympics the year prior, might not be Aleksanyan but he was certainly viewed as a very real potential problem for Hancock entering the final. Bayryakov is a compact, grinding type of worker with a ton of big tournaments under his belt. Then you toss in Hancock having roundabout 24 hours to digest the biggest win of his career thus far and having to reconcile the high which accompanied it. A letdown in the 97-kilo finals would have been understandable. It would have been a downer, too. For sure. But letdowns happen sometimes following signature wins and the fact that Hancock avoided such a trap was nearly as impressive as the fall over Aleksanyan.
Naturally, Hancock did more than avoid the trap, he dominated in every single phase of the match en-route to a 7-0 shutdown of a very tough and accomplished wrestler.
Lastly is the little matter of the tournament itself. On an annual basis, the Wladyslaw Pytlasinski Memorial serves as a preferred pre-Worlds (or Olympics) tune-up event for many of the sport’s very best. So, making the podium here kind of says something about your trajectory.
Earning a medal at the Pytlasinski does not automatically mean a wrestler is a lock to place at the Worlds or Olympics — but there is no doubt a competitive relationship exists between the two tournaments. It is difficult to account for the level of participation year-in and year-out; not every World medal candidate or powerhouse nation shows up to Poland each summer. However, many of them do. We’ve traced the results back to 2009 since that was the first year of the 2012 quad and we’ve capped placewinners up to 2017. What you will notice is that plenty of medalists from Poland wound up performing quite well in that year’s World-level event.
2009
74 kg: Mark Madsen (DEN) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
84 kg: Melonin Noumonvi (FRA) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
96 kg: Jimmy Lidberg (SWE) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
120 kg: Dremiel Byers (USA) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
2010
55 kg: Nazir Mankiev (RUS — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
66 kg: Armen Vardanyan (UKR) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
84 kg: Nenad Zugaj (CRO) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
96 kg: Timofej Dzeynichenko (BLR) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
2011
55 kg: Elbek Tazhyiev (BLR) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
60 kg: Ivo Angelov (BUL) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
74 kg: Roman Vlasov (RUS) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 1st at Worlds
84 kg: Rami Heitaniemi (FIN) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
2012
55 kg: Peter Modos (HUN) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Olympics
66 kg: Tamas Lorincz (HUN) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Olympics
74 kg: Roman Vlasov (RUS) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 1st at Olympics
84 kg: Alan Khugaev (RUS) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 1st at Olympics
84 kg: Karim Gaber (IRI) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Olympics
84 kg: Damian Janikowski (POL) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Olympics
96 kg: Rustam Totrov (RUS) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Olympics
2013
66 kg: Frank Staebler (GER) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
84 kg: Viktor Lorincz (HUN) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
96 kg: Balasz Kiss (HUN) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
120 kg: Johan Euren (SWE) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
2014
66 kg: Hamid Soryan (IRI) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 1st at Worlds (59 kg)
66 kg: Edgaras Venckaitis (LTU) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
75 kg: Neven Zugaj (CRO) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
80 kg: Evgeni Saleev (RUS) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
85 kg: Melonin Noumonvi (FRA) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 1st at Worlds
2015
66 kg: Frank Staebler (GER) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 1st at Worlds
66 kg: Adam Kurak (RUS) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds (71 kg)
75 kg: Roman Vlasov (RUS) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 1st at Worlds
80 kg: Selcuk Cebi (TUR) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 1st at Worlds
80 kg: Vicktor Sasunouski (BLR) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
98 kg: Ghasem Rezaei (IRI) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
2016
75 kg: Mark Madsen (DEN) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Olympics
75 kg: Kim Hyeon-Woo (KOR) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Olympics
98 kg: Yasmany Lugo Cabrera (CUB) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Olympics
2017
59 kg: Kenichiro Fumita (JPN) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 1st at Worlds
66 kg: Artem Surkov (RUS) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
71 kg: Frank Staebler (GER) — 1st at Pytlasinski > 1st at Worlds
71 kg: Balint Korpasi (HUN) — 2nd at Pytlasinski > 3rd at Worlds
75 kg: Tamas Lorincz (HUN) — 3rd at Pytlasinski > 2nd at Worlds
2018 Wladsylaw Pytlasinski Memorial Placewinners
55 kg
GOLD: Norayr Hakhoyan (ARM)
SILVER: Nedyalko Petrov (BUL)
BRONZE: Sargis Khachatryan (BRA)
60 kg
GOLD: Erbatu Tuo (CHN)
SILVER: Gevorg Gharibyan (ARM)
BRONZE: Mostafa Mohamed (EGY)
BRONZE: Andres Montano Arroyo (ECU)
63 kg
GOLD: Slavik Galstyan (ARM)
SILVER: Nikolay Vichev (BUL)
BRONZE: Hassan Mohamed (EGY)
67 kg
GOLD: Gevorg Sahakyan (POL)
SILVER: Karen Aslanyan (ARM)
BRONZE: Konstantin Stas (BUL)
BRONZE: Katsuyoshi Kawase (JPN)
72 kg
GOLD: Cengiz Arslan (TUR)
SILVER: Denis Horvath (SVK)
BRONZE: Mikko Peltokangas (FIN)
BRONZE: Daniel Soini (SWE)
77 kg
GOLD: Karapet Chalyan (ARM)
SILVER: Arsen Julfalakyan (ARM)
BRONZE: Alex Kessidis (SWE)
BRONZE: Pascal Eisele (GER)
82 kg
GOLD: Emrah Kus (TUR)
SILVER: Oleksii Osniach (UKR)
BRONZE: Jarno Aalander (FIN)
BRONZE: Daniel Aleksandrov (BUL)
87 kg
GOLD: Zakarias Berg (SWE)
SILVER: Oleksander Shyshman (UKR)
BRONZE: Tadeusz Michalik (POL)
BRONZE: Tarek Sheble Mohamed (BUL)
97 kg
GOLD: G’Angelo Hancock (USA)
SILVER: Nikolai Bayryakov (BUL)
BRONZE: Nikoloz Kakhelashvili (ITA)
BRONZE: Suleyman Erbay (TUR)
130 kg
GOLD: Mantas Knystautas (LTU)
SILVER: Yasmany Acosta Fernandez (CHL)
BRONZE: Oskar Marvik (NOR)
BRONZE: Rafal Krajewski (POL)
The Juniors Leave for Slovakia This Week
Aka, the 2018 Junior World Championships. What we have in store…
- Peyton Omania (67 kg, CYC, and as advertised here a week ago).
- Alston Nutter (63 kg, NMU/OTS).
- Junior WT co-head coach Nate Engel.
We will have live coverage and recaps of each day’s action. However — because there is a World event taking place on a Monday there will not be a Roundup next week.
2018 Junior Greco-Roman World Championships
Trnava, Slovakia — September 17th-19th
Monday, September 17th
10:30 am-3:00 pm — Qualification round(s) — 55 kg, 63 kg, 77 kg, 87 kg, & 130 kg
6:00 pm-7:30 pm — Semifinals — 55 kg, 63 kg, 77 kg, 87 kg, & 130 kg
Tuesday, September 18th
10:30 am-3:00 pm — Qualification round(s) — 60 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg, 82 kg, & 97 kg
10:30 am-3:00 pm — Repechage round(s) — 55 kg, 63 kg, 77 kg, 87 kg, & 130 kg
5:15 pm-6:00 pm — Semifinals — 60 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg, 82 kg, & 97 kg
6:00 pm-8:30 pm — Finals — 55 kg, 63 kg, 77 kg, 87 kg, & 130 kg
Wednesday, September 19th
10:30 am-1:30 pm — Repechage round(s) — 60 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg, 82 kg, & 97 kg
6:00 pm-8:30 pm — Finals — 60 kg, 67 kg, 72 kg, 82 kg, & 97 kg
WRESTLERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Your (somewhat) weekly dose of inspiring words, knuckleheaded antics, or thought-provoking questions from your favorite US (and sometimes international) Greco-Roman athletes and coaches.
Okay, so there was this.
Tracy Hancock just pinned the Olympic Champ!!! #gogreco @5PtMove @OlympicKidd @USAWrestling pic.twitter.com/PlxEkho5RM
— Josef Rau (@Raustler84) September 7, 2018
But before that was this…
Your gonna have to wrestle the good guys whether you like it or not. Embrace the challenge.
— G’angelo Hancock (@OlympicKidd) September 7, 2018
And before both of those was this. Overuse of “this” acceptable on rare occasions.
From this to this.. Our first Greco tournament 4 Years ago now he’s pinning Olympic Champions.. It’s only the beginning CHAMP @OlympicKidd pic.twitter.com/J2X38qoNSx
— Thomas (TC) Dantzler (@TC_Dantzler) September 8, 2018
And then afterwards.
NMU. Success. Present. Future.
This guy.
Wouldn’t you know it, but squats don’t do themselves.
Questions? Concerns? Feel like reaching out? Do so on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
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