Gold medalist Morikawa Miwa (2nd L), silver medalist Long Jia (1st L), and bronze medalists Koumba Larroque and Mallory Maxine Velte (1st R) pose during the awards ceremony for the women's 65kg category event at the Wrestling World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, on Sept. 14, 2022. (Photo by Predrag Milosavljevic/Xinhua)
Chinese wrestler Long Jia lost to Japan's Miwa Morikawa in the women's 65kg final to claim silver at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships.
BELGRADE, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Long Jia of China took silver in the women's freestyle wrestling 65kg after losing the final 2-0 to Japan's Miwa Morikawa on Wednesday at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships.
Long, who advanced to the final after defeating France's Koumba Larroque, faced off against Morikawa, the silver medalist from the 2021 World Championships.
Long stepping out of the zone and failing to score at the passive time gifted Morikawa two points in the first leg. Long upped the pace in the second period, but Morikawa shifted her focus to defense and successfully thwarted Long's attacks.
Long told Xinhua after the bout that Morikawa was better at handling the details of the match.
"Participating in international competitions is a good opportunity to gain experience. I tried new offensive actions in the matches and it felt good. I hope to master more skills in the future," said Long.
The other gold medal for the Japanese women's team in the fifth matchday came from Yui Susaki. In the 50kg final, the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist handily defeated Otgonjargal Dolgorjav from Mongolia 4-0 (victory by fall).
On Wednesday, the other two gold medals went to American Dominique Olivia Parrish and Yasemin Adar of Turkey. Parrish defeated Mongolia's Khulan Batkhuyag 4-2 in the women's 53kg, while Adar smashed Samar Amer Ibrahim Hamza of Egypt in the women's 76kg. ■
