World Wrestling Championships 2025 Day 1 Results: Zahid Valencia enters 86kg final, High Schooler Jaxx Forrest to wrestler for bronze

The opening day of the World Wrestling Championships 2025 saw several US wrestlers in action in the 61kg, 70 kg, 86kg, and 125kg categories. One of the most promising performances from the event came from the side of 18-year-old Jax Forrest in the 61kg bracket.

2025 Pan American Championships gold medalist in the bracket, Forrest, defeated Taiyrbek Zhumashbek in the quarters by a margin of 13-7 to advance to the next round, where he faced Zaver Uguev but was eventually defeated by the latter. Competing in the 70kg bracket, PJ Duke faced a disappointing defeat in his Round of 16 match against Nurkozha Kaipanov.

However, Duke will be competing in the repechage rounds of the bracket on the second day of the tournament, where he will be looking to keep his medal hope alive at the 2025 World Wrestling Championships.

2023 World Championships bronze medalist, Zahid Valencia, has also qualified for the semis in the 86kg bracket. He defeated Ivars Samusonok in his quarterfinal match by a margin of 10-0. Valencia faced Kamren Ghasempour in his semifinal match and won convincingly to qualify for the gold medal match.

Competing in the 125kg bracket, Wyatt Hendrickson was eliminated from his opening round in the tournament after a 4-14 defeat to Abduall Kurbanov.

World Wrestling Championships 2025: Results of the semifinals

Here are all the semifinal updates from the opening day of the World Wrestling Championships 2025:

61kg:

Zavur Uguev defeated Jax Forrest, 10-3 via VPO1
Ahmad Masoud Mohammadnezhadjavan defeated Kum Hyok Kim, via VPO1

70kg:

Yoshinosuke Aoyagi defeated Arman Andreasyan, 8-0 via VPO
Tulga Tumur Ochir defeated Nurkozha Kaipanov, 5-2 via VPO1

86kg:

Zahid Valencia defeated Kamran Ghasempour, 7-0 via decision
Hayato Ishiguro defeated Rakhim Magamadov, 17-7 via TF

125kg:

Giorgi Meshvildishvili defeated Robert Baran, 2-0 via decision
Amir Hossein Zare defeated Shamil Magomed Sharipov, 7-3 via decision

US Wrestlers to watch out for on the second day of the World Wrestling Championships 2025

The second day of the competition will be marked by the medal matches of the 61kg, 70kg, 86kg, and 125kg brackets. Thereby, PJ Duke will be seen in the repechage round of his 70kg bracket. Besides, Zahid Valencia will also be seen in the 86kg gold medal match, where he will face Hayato Ishiguro.

For the other brackets of the competition, Spencer Lee will be one of the top wrestlers to watch out for in the 57kg bracket, where he is also the No. 1 seed. David Carr, Levi Haines, and Trent Hidlay are the other wrestlers from the USA who will also be seen in action in the 74kg, 79kg, and 92kg brackets.

About the author

Soumik is a journalist at Sportskeeda who covers US Olympics. Currently an Honors student of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has also worked for other firms as a tennis and football content writer.

Soumik’s favorite Olympian is Michael Phelps and he believes that the eight-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer has revolutionized the spectrum of Swimming. Nonetheless, the adrenaline rush that Track & Field sports offer interests him the most; and Neeraj Chopra’s historic gold-medal victory at the 2020 Tokyo Games is his favorite moment from past Olympics.

Soumik sources data and facts from credible sources like BBC and NBC for accurate and relevant reporting, and keeps up with updates on social media and news media platforms.

He feels that covering collegiate tournaments, similar to what is done in the United States can be a good way to cover the bridge the coverage gap during the Olympics off season.

When not reporting on the latest Olympics news stories, Soumik likes to play cricket and watch movies.

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Edited by Soumik Bhattacharya