60 kg representative Roberts, a two-time U.S. World Team member and Pan American champion, was unable to complete a spirited second-period comeback on Viktor Petryk of Ukraine in his first and only match of the event.
Roberts surrendered the first passivity point of the bout at the halfway mark of the first period. He battled a tight front headlock attempt for several seconds, but eventually succumbed to it, rolling through three times. Down 7-0 in the second period, Roberts threw a Russian tie to the mat for a score, and added a passivity point of his own to cut Petryk’s lead to four. With time running short, Petryk hit an arm spin, which Roberts countered to end up on top. After video review, the sequence was scored 4-2 in favor of Petryk. Roberts added a step out point to round out the scoring. Final score, 11-6 in favor of Petryk.
Petryk was pinned by Virgil Bica of Sweden in his next match, ending Roberts chances at a wrestle-back and an Olympic quota.
The action from Istanbul’s Başakşehir Gençlik ve Spor Tesisleri continues Friday morning with the Greco-Roman repechage. Additionally, the women’s freestyle tournament will wrestle through the semifinals. The U.S. previously qualified all six women’s freestyle weight classes and won’t have anyone competing this week in Turkey.
The U.S. audience can watch the World Olympic Games Qualifier live on Flowrestling.com starting at 10 a.m. local time/3 a.m. (ET). Brackets and real-time results will be available on UWW Arena.
For more information about the World Olympic Games Qualifier please visit the official event website at uww.org. USA Wrestling will provide complete coverage of the event on TheMat.com and its social media platforms. Join the conversation using #WrestleIstanbul.