Kazakhstan's women's team completed its performance at the U23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas with one bronze medal. The only award for the team was brought by Shugyla Omirbek in the 55 kg weight category. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
On the final day of women's wrestling, two other Kazakh athletes remained in contention for medals. Anna Stratan (57 kg) lost to Germany's Amory Andrich in the consolation match and took seventh place. Zhibekzhan Sabyrzhanova (72 kg) reached the bronze medal bout, where she lost to China's Wenjin Qiu by fall and finished the tournament in fifth place.
In the unofficial medal standings, Ukraine took first place with three gold, one silver and two bronze medals. Our team, with one bronze, shares 15th–17th places with Italy and Spain.
After the women's program concluded, freestyle wrestling began at the World Championships. On the first day, five Kazakh athletes took to the mat, but none of them retained a chance for a medal.
Nurdanat Aitanov (61 kg) defeated Ukraine's Andriy Shokaliuk 7:4 in the 1/8 finals, then lost to Armenia's Sargis Begoyan 4:8 in the quarterfinals. Begoyan later lost in the semifinals, so Aitanov did not enter the consolation round.
Nurdaulet Seilbekov (74 kg) successively defeated Canada's Nicholas Hooper and Brazil's Leandro Araujo, both times with a score of 8:0. In the quarterfinals, the Kazakh lost to Iran's Ali Karampour 0:10. Karampour lost his semifinal to American Jayden James, and Seilbekov also ended his performance.
Abylaikhan Uzembaev (86 kg), Kamil Kurugliev (92 kg) and Alimzhan Salimzhan (125 kg) were eliminated after their opening matches. Their victorious opponents did not reach the finals, so the Kazakhs did not receive the right to consolation bouts.
Kazakhstan's Greco-Roman wrestling team finished the competition with five medals. Aibek Aitbekov and Yusuf Ashrapov became world champions, Temirlan Turdakyn won silver, and Arsen Zhuma and Dzhokhar Uzarov took bronze. In the team standings for Greco-Roman wrestlers, Kazakhstan took second place.
The U23 World Championships are being held in Las Vegas from October 12 to 18. The tournament opened with Greco-Roman competitions, followed by women's and freestyle wrestling. Kazakhstan's team is represented by a full roster of 30 athletes.
At last year's U23 World Championships, Kazakhstan won five medals. Shugyla Omirbek became a world champion, Rizabek Aitmukhan won bronze in freestyle wrestling, and the Greco-Roman wrestlers brought the team one silver (Yusuf Matsiev) and two bronzes (Merey Mauletkanov and Omar Sataev).