It wasn’t the type of opening round Iowa fans or USA wrestling fans were hoping for as early this morning former NCAA champion for the Iowa Hawkeyes Tony Ramos was eliminated from the 2014 World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, wrestling only one match.
“It wasn’t much of a day – I only had one match,” Ramos said. “It’s not what I came here for and it’s not what I’ve been training for. I didn’t make all these sacrifices and train this hard to only wrestle one match.” (quote from USA wrestling).
Ramos did have an early lead on his opponent, and as sometimes happens in international tournaments, there was some controversy over the scoring in Tony’s match. Coach Brands threw out the challenge block, but the referee who was officiating that match, reportedly ignored it (we’ll post the video once USA wrestling uploads it). In short, Ramos appeared to have exposed his opponent’s back, but was only awarded points for his takedown. When his opponent failed to reach the finals, Ramos was officially eliminated from his first World tournament.
Tervel Dlagnev at 125 KG will be the only American going for a medal today, but USA sends a strong group of medal contenders to mat for tomorrow’s competition. Among that group is three time World/Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs at 74 KG, and former Hawkeye Brent Metcalf at 65 KG.
57 kg/125.5 lbs. – Tony Ramos, Iowa City, Iowa (Titan Mercury WC/Hawkeye WC)
LOSS Bekhbayar Erdenebat (Mongolia), 4-7
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[…] Yesterday, Tony Ramos took the mat at 57 KG for Team USA and had a disappointing tournament as he went 0-1, his day ending before it ever really got going. […]