The good news for RaVaughn Perkins is that if at the second Olympic qualifying tournament he finishes ahead of everyone he finished ahead of on Friday, he’ll be in the Olympics. The bad news is that he’s going to have to go out there and earn it on the mat with no margin for errors. Perkins was one of three US wrestlers trying to reach the Olympics on Friday but he was the only one who really came close. Perkins won his first two matches of the day by technical fall 8-0 over Benedikt Puffer of Austria and Mirambek Ainagulov of Kazakhstan but dropped his quarterfinal match to Tero Vaelimaeki of Finland 3-2.
In these tournaments the wrestlers eligible for the repechage for the third place are anyone who lost to one of the two finalists. Vaelimaeki reached the final so Perkins was not done yet. He won his two repechage matches easily, 8-0 over Portugal’s Hugo Da Silva and 7-0 over Belarus’ Pavel Liakh. This set up a match against Edgaras Venckaitis of Lithuania but unfortunately that match was a shutout for Venckaitis 5-0 forcing Perkins to try again from square one at the next Olympic qualifying event in early May in Istanbul.
The other two US wrestlers Jesse Thielke at 59kg and Joe Rau at 98kg lost their opening matches and did not get repechage chances. Thielke lost to Gaurav Sharma of India 6-5 while Rau lost to…. Sharma lost 12-0 in the second round, and the man who beat him lost 11-0 in the quarterfinals. That quarterfinal winner also lost badly, 11-2, in the semifinals to the eventual champion. Those scorelines do make it look like Thielke is far from qualifying as he heads to the final opportunity in Istanbul. Rau didn’t have to wrestle in round one but lost his first match to Carl Schoen of Sweden 4-1. Schoen did reach the semifinals before losing there and battling through the repechage himself to grab the third Olympic spot in the weight category. That should give Rau some confidence that with a better draw in Istanbul he stands a chance to qualify.
Four US women will compete in the freestyle on Friday where only two spots are available in each class. In the 48 kg division Halley Augello, who has never wrestled at a senior world championships, will take on Viyaleta Chyryk of Belarus. Chyryk was 25th at the world championships so it would seem Augello has a real chance to advance to start. Helen Maroulis will be one of the favorites to grab an Olympic spot in the 53kg division as she won the world championship at 55kg in September. She opens with Alma Jane Valencia Escoto of Mexico who was 12th in this weight class at the world championships and seventh the year before.
In the 58kg division Kelsey Campbell hasn’t appeared in the world championships since 2011 but was the gold medalist at the pan american championship in February. Campbell will take on Emese Barka of Hungary in her first match. Barka was eighth in the 60kg division at the world championships and was third at the worlds in 2013, certainly a tough test for Campbell to start things off. Finally Tamyra Mensah will compete at 69kg. Mensah has not competed at a world championship and this is a big stage for her. Her first round opponent of Kaur Navjot of India was fifth in the world championships in 2012 but has finished 13th or worse in the three years since. A winable match for Mesnah’s first might just ensue.
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