2017 UWW Senior World Championships

Day 1 World Championship Greco Draws

Day 1 World Championship Greco Draws

The first day of the Senior World Championships gets underway tomorrow morning with Pat Smith, Mason Manville, Ben Provisor and G'Angelo Hancock getting Team USA started on day one of the Greco tournament.

Aug 20, 2017 by Ryan Holmes
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The Senior World Championships kick off Monday in Paris with Pat Smith, Mason Manville, Ben Provisor, and G'Angelo Hancock getting Team USA started on day one of the Greco tournament.

Each guy is making his World Championship debut, with the two-time Olympian Proviso, looking to lead the way. Hancock, who was a Junior world bronze last year, will hope to improve upon his seventh-place finish at the Junior tournament from a few weeks ago. In order to do so, he will have to get by 2016 Olympic champion and two-time world champion Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia, whom Hancock could hit in the second round.

First-round draws

71kg: Pat Smith
Opening Match - Matous Morbiter (Czech Republic)
Smith pinned Morbitzer in the first round of the Thor Masters tournament earlier this year. This is Smith's first Senior World Championships and Morbitzer's fourth appearance. In the second round, Smith could see Jair Alexis Cuero Munoz of Colombia, whom Smith beat in last year's Pan Am finals.

His Side - Balint Korpasi of Hungary (defending world champ); Adam Kurak of Russia (2015 bronze); Ilie Cojocari of Romania (2016 world bronze)

Opposite Side - Rasul Chunayev of Azerbaijan (2015 world champ); Frank Staebler of Germany (2015 world champ at 66kg). That battle of former world champs could happen in round two. Also meeting in the first round are Olympic bronze medalist Shamgi Bolkvadze of Georgia and Islamic Solidarity Games champ Mohammadali Geraei of Iran.

75kg: Mason Manville
Opening Match - Manfred Edsberg (Sweden)
Edsberg has been on the senior level for five years, but this year featured his first appearances at the European and world championships. He finished third in the 2017 Nordic Championships and third in 2017 Petrov International.

His side - No. 2 Saeid Mourad Abdvali of Iran (Olympic bronze); No. 8 Viktor Nemes of Serbia (2016 Euro silver); No. 9 Karapet Chalyan of Armenia (2016 Euro bronze)

Manville is on the very bottom of the bracket, with Rio bronze medalist Abdvali at the top of his half. Abdvali faces Nemes in a first-round battle of top 10-ranked guys.

85kg: Ben Provisor
vs. Oleksander Shyshman (Ukraine), 2014 World Military champion, third in 2014 European Championships, second in 2014 World Military Championships.

98kg: G'Angelo Hancock
Opening Match - Fatih Baskoy (Turkey)
Baskoy is a 2016 World University champion who took bronze at the U23 European championships earlier this year. He also has a bronze medal from the 2013 Junior World Championships and won U23 Euros back in 2015.

His Side - Reigning world and Olympic champion Artur Aleksanyan of Armenia looms in the second round. Also on Hancock's side are Felix Baldauf of Norway, who beat Aleksanyan earlier this year en route to a Euro crown, and Rustam Assakalov of Uzbekistan, the silver medalist from the Vegas world championships at 85kg.



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