Hendrickson's Streak Ends at World Championships, Forrest All the Way to Semifinal
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State’s NCAA Heavyweight Champion from this past season and the Hodge Trophy winner as the top wrestler in the collegiate version of the sport saw his win streak that included a 27-0 season as a senior at OSU and a run through the US Senior Open, Pan American Games, and Final X end a 14-4 loss to Abdulla Kurbanov. Kurbanov wrestles under the flag of United World Wrestling. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Jax Forrest ran through his first three rounds to earn his way into the semifinals against Uguev Zavur, who wrestles under the flag of United World Wrestling.
Jax Forrest of the USA kept an early unbeaten run of the United States going with a technical superiority win over Sangboum Han of Korea at 61kg.
Takara Suda of Japan was up next and couldn’t handle the pressure from Forrest in their 61kg bout and lost 7-2. Suda was put on the clock first and did not score as Forrest got a 1-0 lead. In the second period, Suda was more active, but Forrest had unbelievable positioning to keep his lead. He managed to score a takedown on Suda for a 3-0 lead. Then he added another for a 5-0 lead before Suda got 2 points for exposure with less than a minute left. He failed to score again and got countered for two points as Forrest countered Suda for two more points to finish the 7-2 win.
The teen phenom Forrest continued his amazing run in Zagreb, scoring a pair of four-point takedowns and then held off a late surge from Taiyrbek Zhumashbek Uulu of Kazakhstan to win 13-8 and advance to the 61kg semifinals.
Hendrickson had won 10 matches in a row in freestyle competition but that ended in his first match with Kurbanov, who he had beaten previously in the 2023 Under 23 World Championships.
In a classic battle between the recent world U23 champions at 125kg, Kurbanov scored the big points in key situations to get the 14-4 victory over Hendrickson. Kurbanov came out with single-leg takedown to the back for four points. Hendrickson replied with a stepout, but gave up a two-point exposure when he tried to get behind.
In the second period, Kurbanov got a counter lift for two while giving up one-point for a reversal, making it 8-2. Hendrickson then got a counter lift for two to pull within four. But Kurbanov stuffed an attempted lift for two, then added a gut wrench to finish up the match in the final minute.
Kurbanov has continued winning two more minutes giving Hendrickson hope he can get in the repechage and still have a chance to medal.
Another wrestler from Cowboy Regional Training Center in Stillwater, Zahid Valencia of Team USA won three matches and earned his way into the World Championship semifinals at 86 kg
