Nick Gwiazdowski wins a bronze medal at World Wrestling Championships on Oct. 21, 2018 in Budapest, Hungary.
Nick Gwiazdowski is a world bronze medalist for the second year in a row after the American defeated Sumit Malik of India at 125 kilograms at the 2018 Senior World Wrestling Championships on Sunday in Budapest, Hungary.
Gwiazdowski, a two-time NCAA champion at North Carolina State, won his repechage match to get to the bronze-medal match, where he made it 4-for-4 for the Americans competing in the medal round Sunday.
Gwiazdowski forced a step-out and then time ran down on Malik to give the Raleigh, North Carolina, native a 2-0 lead. He expanded that to 4-0 with a takedown and with just 30 seconds remaining in the match he was ahead 7-2. When time ran down, that is how the score stood and the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at 125 kg laid claim to his second world bronze.
In order to reach the match, the top-seeded Gwiazdowski defeated 2014 junior world champion Amar Dhesi of Canada in the repechage 7-0. He defeated Zolboo Natsatgsuren, who was fifth at last year’s world championships, 9-4, before losing to China’s Zhiwei Deng 5-4.
Earlier in the evening Jordan Burroughs won bronze at 74 kg, Joe Colon won bronze at 61 kg and David Taylor took gold at 86 kg. The world championships continue through Sunday.
The Americans have a shot at two golds Monday with Kyle Dake (67 kg) and J’den Cox (92 kg) looking to bring home titles.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.