Cuban woman makes history in World Wrestling Championships

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 24 (acn) Lianna Montero (55 kilograms) made history by becoming the first Cuban woman who wins a universal senior medal when ranking third in the World Wrestling Championships based in Budapest, Hungary.

In one of the bronze-medal matches of her division, Montero beat 5-4 American Jacarra Winchester, but prior, she defeated 10-0 Vietnamese Kieu Thi Ly in the second round of the repechage, according to official website of the contest.
Montero, 2017 world junior runner-up, made her debut by losing 6-16 to Belarus´s Zalina Sidakova, who dragged her to the repechage as she advanced to the final.
The women´s freestyle 55 kilos division was won by Japanese Mayu Mukaida, who beat 12-2 Sidakova in the final, while the other bronze medal went to North Korean Jong Myung Suk.
Cuba´s other woman competing yesterday, Yudari Sanchez (68), starred a good debut when overcoming 5-2 Russian Anastasia Bratchikova, current European monarch, but then lost to American Tamyra Mensah in the round-of-16.
Yesterday was a good day for the Caribbean island in this tournament as man Franklin Maren (70) also earned a bronze medal despite losing in his debut 1-5 to Bahrain´s Adam Batirov, who dragged him to the repechage as he reached the final.
Once in that stage, Maren first beat 10-0 Moldovan Mihai Sava, then defeated 12-2 Armenian David Safaryan, 2013 World and European champion, to finally win 11-1 over Ukranian Andryi Kviatkovskyi in the bronze medal bout.
So far, Cuba accumulates in the 2018 World Wrestling Championship a title won by Yowlys Bonne (61) and three bronze medals achieved by Alejandro Valdes (65), Maren (70) and the woman Montero (68), all in the freestyle event, thus ranking fourth in the medal table behind Russia (4-1-2), United States (3-1-3) and Georgia (1-1-2) and ahead of Japan (1-0-2), Belarus (0-2-1), Turkey (0-2-1) and China (0-1-1), just to mention the top 8.