Arujau Earns 61kg World Championship Gold, Dake Advances To 74kg Finals
SOURCE: cornellbigred.com
September 17, 2023

 


BELGRADE, Serbia - Vito Arujau will return to East Hill with a gold medal after taking down the 2021 61kg world champion Abasgadzhi Magomedov (independent) 10-9 in a thrilling match that went down to the wire. During the 2023 World Wrestling Championships, Arujau outscored his opponents 50-11, including two shutout victories and a pair of technical falls.

While Arujau finished his quest for a gold medal, Kyle Dake '13 (USA), the second seed at 74kg, began his, advancing to the final round with four victories. A four-time world freestyle champion and 2020 Bronze Olympian, Dake will face 2021 Olympic champion Zaurbek Sidakov (independent) on Monday at 12:00 noon eastern time.

Ben Honis '19 (Italy) will make his tournament debut on Monday Sept. 18. He is the fifth seed in the 97kg class, and is slated to face Mojtaba Goleij (Iran).



Arujau Takes Gold

Representing the USA in the 61kg weight class, Arujau defeated Magomedov in the championship match on Sunday at Stark Arena. Magomedov was the 2021 world champion at 61kg, and FloWrestling predicted him to win the gold this year, while Arujau was forecasted to earn bronze.

A pushout got Arujau on the board early, followed by a flurry between the two grapplers that led to a challenge brick being thrown by Magomedov's corner. After officials sorted out the call, Arujau was awarded four points, and Magomedov two, bringing the count to 5-2. Another flurry of exposures led to the second challenge of the half, awarding both wrestlers two points.

Arujau went into the break leading 7-4 but lost that advantage in the second half when the his corner lost a challenge of Magomedov's takedown, awarding the Independent representative two points and a lost point for the Cornellian, giving Magomedov the 7-7 advantage by criteria. He countered Magomedov's ensuing grapple with a go-behind leading to a two point takedown, giving the lead back to Arujau.

With one minute left, Arujau gained a point on a step out, and then gave up two points, coming on a step out and a caution taking the count to 10-9. With 10 seconds to go, Magomedov failed to register another tally, making room for Arujau to collect win the match and collect the 61kg gold medal.

The final match was by far the closest for Arujau this weekend. The defending NCAA champion at 133 pounds dominated each of his opponents on Saturday, recording wins of 10-0 (twice), 8-2 and 12-2.

He joins the company of Dake '13 and Yianni Diakomihalis '23, as Cornellians to medal on the world stage in the last five years.



Dake Advances

The 74kg weight-class is far and behold the deepest group at the 2023 Senior World Championships. The draw included 10 world and Olympic medalists, with three being world champions.

Dake recorded a first-round technical fall over Magomet Evloev (Tajikistan), a 9-4 win over Nurkozha Kaipanov (Kazakhstan), a 6-4 win over Daichi Takatani (Japan) and a 4-1 win over Georgios Kougioumtsidis (Greece) in the semifinal round.

He is set to meet 2021 Olympic champion Sidakov tomorrow at noon, in the 74kg world finals bout.


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