By Gary Abbott
USA Wrestling
OSLO, Norway – Two-time Olympian Ben Provisor has been pulled back into Friday’s repechage at 82 kg in Greco-Roman at the Senior World Championships.

Provisor, the No. 2 seed, won his opening bout over Satoki Mukai of Japan, 2-1. His quarterfinal loss came to Burhan Akbudak of Turkey in an 8-0 technical fall.

Akbudak reached tonight’s semifinals, where he defeated Pejman Poshtam of Iran to qualify for the gold-medal finals. Only losers to a finalist are eligible for repechage, and Provisor has been pulled back in.

Provisor will wrestle the winner of the first repechage match in his weight class between Gegham Torgomyan of Armenia and Laszlo Szabo of Hungary. If Provisor wins his repechage bout, he will qualify for a bronze medal match on Friday night against Poshtam.

Max Nowry, who lost on Thursday morning in the quarterfinals, will not be able to enter repechage because the wrestler who beat him lost in the semifinals.

Nowry opened Thursday morning with a 10-1 technical fall over Sajjad Abbaspourragani of Iran, 10-1. He fell in the quarterfinals to Norayr Hakhoyan of Armenia in a 9-0 technical fall.

Hakhoyan was defeated in a very close semifinal match by No. 1 seed Emin Sefershaev of the Russian Wrestling Federation.

On Thursday morning, U.S. wrestlers Patrick Smith at 72 kg and Jesse Porter at 77 kg dropped their first match and were eliminated when their opponents lost in the next round.

The finals were set in the four weight classes in Group One of Greco-Roman. The neutral athletes from the Russian Wrestling Federation pushed the most athletes into Friday’s finals with three. Azerbaijan put two athletes into the finals. Other nations with finalists are Japan and Turkey.

Group Two of Greco-Roman will compete on Friday morning, with action at 60 kg, 97 kg and 130 kg. 2020 Olympian and four-time World Team member G’Angelo Hancock (97 kg) gets started, along with two-time World Team member Dalton Roberts (60 kg) and past Cadet World champion Cohlton Schultz (130 kg).

All of the action is live on FloWrestling.

SENIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Oslo, Norway, October 7

Group One Greco-Roman finals pairings
55 kg – Emin Sefershaev (Russian Wrestling Federation) vs. Ken Matsui (Japan)
72 kg – Sergei Kutuzov (Russian Wrestling Federation) vs. Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia)
77 kg – Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) vs. Roman Vlasov (Russian Wrestling Federation)
82 kg – Rafig Huseynov (Azerbaijan) vs. Burhan Akbudak (Turkey)

Group One Greco-Roman semifinal results

55 kg
Emin Sefershaev (Russian Wrestling Federation) dec. Norayr Hakhoyan (Armenia), 3-2
Ken Matsui (Japan) fall Eldaniz Azizli (Azerbaijan), 3:59

72 kg
Malkhas Amoyan (Armenia) dec. Mohammad Mokhtari (Iran), 10-6
Sergei Kutuzov (Russian Wrestling Federation) tech fall Cengiz Arslan (Turkey), 10-0 1:47

77 kg
Roman Vlasov (Russian Wrestling Federation) dec. Tamas Levai (Hungary), 7-0
Sanan Suleymanov (Azerbaijan) dec. Tsimur Berdyieu (Belarus), 5-4

82 kg
Burhan Akbudak (Turkey) dec. Pejman Poshtam (Iran), 5-2
Rafig Huseynov (Azerbaijan) dec. Adlan Akiev (Russian Wrestling Federation), 2-1

U.S. Greco-Roman Group One results

55 kg – Max Nowry (Colorado Springs, Colo./Army WCAP)
WIN Sajjad Abbaspourragani (Iran), tech fall 10-1, 3:00
LOSS Norayr Hakhoyan (Armenia), tech. fall 9-0, 2:04

72 kg – Patrick Smith (Minneapolis, Minn./Minnesota Storm)
LOSS Valentin Petic (Moldova), 6-3

77 kg – Jesse Porter (Clifton Park, N.Y./NMU-OTS/New York AC)
LOSS Bogdan Kourinnoi (Sweden), 3-1

82 kg – No. 2 seed Ben Provisor (Des Moines, Iowa/New York AC)
WIN Satoki Mukai (Japan), 2-1
LOSS Burhan Akbudak (Turkey), tech. fall 8-0, 2:21
Repechage match vs. winner of Gegham Torgomyan (ARM) vs. Laszlo Szabo (HUN)

U.S. Greco-Roman Group Two draws for Friday

60 kg – Dalton Roberts (Colorado Springs, Colo./Army WCAP)
Vs. Gevorg Gharibyan (Armenia), 2020 European champion, 2nd in 2018 Pytlasinski Cup (POL)

97 kg – No. 3 seed G’Angelo Hancock (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids)
Bye, then winner of Ibrahim Tigci (Turkey) and Laokratis Kessidis (Greece)
Tigci – 3rd in 2016 and 2019 European U23s, 10th in 2019 U23 Worlds
Kessidis – 9th in 2018 Worlds, 10th in 2017 Worlds, 5th in 2018 European Championships

130 kg – Cohlton Schultz (Parker, Colo./Sunkist Kids)
Iakobi Kajaia (Georgia), 2020 Olympic silver medalist, 3rd in 2019 Worlds, 3rd in 2012 Junior Worlds