TAIYUAN, China (June 22) – China, Japan, and Russia each qualified three wrestlers for the opening day finals at the China Open, United World Wrestling's third Ranking Series event of the year. Romania’s world finalist Alina VUC (ROU) claimed the tenth and final spot in the day one finals at the Shanxi Sports Center in Taiyuan, China.
The top match-up of Friday night’s finals comes at 55kg where Japan’s 2016 world champion Mayu MUKAIDA will take on China’s 2018 Ivan Yarygin champion, ZHANG Qi.
Zhang finished the morning session with two wins, including a knockoff win over Korea’s fifth-ranked OH Hyemin who was the silver medalist at this year's Asian Championships.
Another gold-medal match-up to keep an eye on is the 57kg championship bout between second ranked RONG Ningning (CHN) and Olga KHOROSHAVTSEVA (RUS).
Rong, who is making her third finals appearance of the year will look to remain unblemished after capturing gold medals at the Ivan Yarygin and Asian Championships. Rong also went undefeated at the 2018 World Cup.
The Chinese wrestler will have her hands full with Russia's Mongolia Open third-place finisher Olga Khoroshavtseva. In her opening round match-up, Khoroshavtseva picked up a 9-7 come-from-behind win after trailing Romania's Katerina ZHYDACHEVSKA 7-0 in the first period. She followed up that first round win with a 10-0 routing of Korea's UM JiEun.
The finals are expected to begin shortly after the opening ceremony which begins at 6:00 PM local time.
#ChinaOpen2018 Medal Match-ups
50kg
GOLD – Alina VUC (ROU) vs. ZHU Jiang (CHN)
BRONZE - Aktenge KEUNIMYAEVA (UZB) vs. Dauletbike YAKHSHIMURATOVA (UZB)
53kg
GOLD – Ekaterina POLESHCHUK (RUS) vs. YUI MIYAHARA (JPN)
BRONZE – PANG Qianyu (CHN) vs. LOU Lannuan (CHN)
BRONZE – Mercedesz DENES (HUN) vs. LIU Yujiao (CHN)
55kg
GOLD – ZHANG Qi (CHN) vs. Mayu MAKAIDA (JPN)
BRONZE – OH Hyemin (KOR) vs. Ramona GALAMBOS (HUN)
BRONZE – Zalina SIDAKOVA (BLR) vs. OUYANG Junling (CHN)
57kg
GOLD – RONG Ningning (CHN) vs. Olga KHOROSHAVTSEVA (RUS)
BRONZE – Kateryna ZHYDACHEVSKA (ROU) vs. UM Jieun (KOR)
59kg
GOLD – Veronika CHUMIKOVA (RUS) vs. Yuzuru KUMANO (JPN)
BRONZE – Aisuluu TYNYBEKOVA (KGZ) vs. WANG Yuan (CHN)
BRONZE – SUN Xinyuan (CHN) vs. ZHANG Yue (CHN)
