Fortune Leads United States to University Freestyle Title, Moldova Wins a Pair of Gold Medals

By William May

PECS, Hungary – Tyrell FORTUNE (USA) capped the men’s freestyle competition Thursday in spectacular fashion. The explosive heavyweight ducked behind Sakir BOZKURT (TUR) midway through the first period of their 125kg final and rolled up an impressive 12-1 technical fall to help lead the American contingent to the freestyle team title.

Tyler CALDWELL (USA) also struck gold for the Americans at 74kg while teammates took four silver medals and a bronze helping the United States to the team title.

Meanwhile, Fumitaka MORISHITA (JPN) and Piotr IANULOV (MDA), bronze medal winners from last year’s World University Games in Russia, also reached the top of the medals podium at the University of Pecs sports hall.

Morishita, the Golden Grand Prix Final winner last November, fashioned a 5-0 victory over former Dan Kolov titlist Vladislav PETROV (RUS) in the 57kg final, while Ianulov pulled out a 5-3 win in the closing moments of the 86kg final with Chris PERRY (USA).

Moldova took home a second gold when Evgheni NEDEALCO found the pin of James GREEN (USA) in the finals at 70kg.

Junior world champ Selehattin KILICSALLYAN (TUR) won his first senior-level title at 65kg with a technical fall over George BUCUR (ROU) while former junior world bronze medalist Fatih YASARLI (TUR) added a second gold at 97kg.

Turkey finished second in the team rankings with two gold medals, a silver and three bronze, while Russia had to settle for third with a pair of silver and bronze medals each.

Men’s Freestyle

57kg
Gold – Fumitaka MORISHITA (JPN) df. Vladislav PETROV (RUS), 5-0
Bronze – Matt McDONOUGH (USA) df. Petro BILEYCHUK (UKR) by TF, 12-2
Bronze – BYAMBADORJ Khash-Erdene (MGL) df. Alexandre CHIRTOACA (MDA), 4-4

61kg
Gold – TUVSHINTULGA Tumenbileg (MGL) df. Bernard FUTRELL (USA), 12-11
Bronze – Ismail AVCI (TUR) df. Stefan IVANOV (BUL), 12-9
Bronze – Niurgun SKRIABIN (RUS) df. Masakazu KAMOI (JPN), 11-7

65kg
Gold – Selahattin KILICSALLAYAN (TUR) df. George BUCUR (ROU) by TF, 10-0
Bronze – BATCHULUUN Batmagnai (MGL) df. Kevin IWASA-MADGE (CAN) by TF, 11-0
Bronze – Mihail SAVA (MDA) df. Ruslan AKHMEDOV (RUS), 8-7

70kg
Gold – Evgheni NEDEALCO (MDA) df. James GREEN (USA), by FALL
Bronze – Shamil MAGOMEDOV (RUS) df. Jere KUNNAS (FIN), 9-3
Bronze – Zsombor GULYAS (HUN) df. Kosuke SUNAGAWA (JPN), 6-1

74kg
Gold – Tyler CALDWELL (USA) df. Shamil-Imam OSMANOV (RUS), 3-2
Bronze – Musa GURBUZ (TUR) df. Ilgiz DZHAKYBEKOV (KGZ) by default
Bronze – Andrey NAGORNY (UKR) df. Robert OLLE (SVK) by default

86kg
Gold – Piotr IANULOV (MDA) df. Chris PERRY (USA), 5-3
Bronze – Ophir BERNSTEIN (ISR) df. Oleg KTSOEV (RUS), 13-6
Bronze – Namik KORKMAZ (TUR) df. Sandor TOZSER (HUN), 6-0

97kg
Gold – Fatih YASARLI (TUR) df. Dustin KILGORE (USA) by TF, 10-0
Bronze – Patryk DUBLINOWSKI (POL) df.  Denis BALAUR (MDA), 5-1
Bronze – Mihaly SZABO (HUN) df. Badavi MAGOMEDOV (RUS), 4-2

125kg
Gold – Tyrell FORTUNE (USA) df. SAKIR Bozkurt (TUR) by TF, 12-1
Bronze – Marian TODOROV (BUL) df. Magomedkamil GUSEINOV (RUS), 8-6
Bronze – Richard CSERCSICS (HUN) df. Alexandr ROMANOV (MDA) by TF, 12-2