With the European Games wrapping up a the end of last month the United World Wrestling rankings got a little bit of a rearranged and there were a few Americans that were on the move; some in the right direction, some in the wrong direction.
Moving the wrong way was Tony Ramos, who dropped from #13 down to #15 in the latest 57 kg rankings. This is by no fault of his own, as the past few months Americans have focused solely on domestic competition as the USA decided it’s World Team, but with that it left virtually no room for Ramos to move up other than to rely on other guys from a different country getting knocked off. In a way that is sort of what happened as a pair of wrestlers have moved a few spots in front of Ramos after not being ranked, but it was because of how well they performed against other top wrestlers at the Euro Games.
There is also the fact that Ramos will not be able to improve his ranking in the coming weeks at the Pan American Games, as it was announced yesterday, that Ramos would not be attending. Even if Ramos went the only marquee win he could have picked up is if Yowlys Bonne Rodriguez ends up being the representative for Cuba at the Games. In the end the rankings have little impact on how high Ramos finishes in September.
That being said, it is awesome to see Brent Metcalf sitting at #5 in the 65 kg rankings. Right now if the rankings held up at the World Championships, Metcalf would be wrestling in his first ever medal match, which would be another big step forward in his International career. While we all know that Metcalf has his eyes fixed on a medal – and not just any medal, a gold one – it would still be good even to see progression at the Championships. Last year he won his first ever match at the World’s in his third attempt, hopefully he finishes at least where he is ranked in Las Vegas to have him primed to make a big splash in Rio at the Olympics.
As for Metcalf, he too will not be able to really improve his ranking at the Games, with all of the wrestlers ranked in front of him residing on the other side of the globe.
57kg –
1. YANG Kyong-Il (PRK) – World No.1 (1)
2. Viktor LEBEDEV (RUS) – European Games No.1 (5)
3. ERDENEBAT Bekhbayar (MGL) – Asia No.1 (2)
4. JONG Hak-Jin (PRK) – Asia No.5 (3)
5. Hassan RAHIMI (IRI) – World Cup No.2 (7)
15. Anthony RAMOS (USA) – World Cup No.4 (13)
65kg –
1. Sayed Ahmad MOHAMMADI (IRI) – World No.2 (1)
2. Magomed KURBANALIEV (RUS) – Medved Prizes No.2 (2)
3. Soslan RAMONOV (RUS) – World No.1 (3)
4. Magomed MUSLIMOV (AZE) – Paris GP No.1 (4)
5. Brent METCALF (USA) – World Cup No.1 (5)
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