By the numbers: Junior World Championships

The 2018 UWW Junior World Championships wrapped up on Sept. 23. Russia won the freestyle team title, while Iran took the Greco-Roman title and Japan won the women's title. As always, there were many standout individual performances outside of the team race. The following is a look at some of those performances from a by-the-numbers perspective.


The overall leader in terms of net match points, which is points scored minus points scored by opponents, was Magomedkhan Magomedov. He came into Junior Worlds off a victory at the Ali Aliev Tournament, and then he blazed through the field in Slovakia. The Russian shut out all five of his opponents and won all of his match via fall or technical superiority.

On the women's side, Moldovan Anastasia Nichita led the way with 42 net match points. She cruised her way into the finals with four straight wins by technical superiority. However, in the finals, she needed to hold on for a one-point win over returning world champion Sae Nanjo (Japan) to claim the 59-kilogram championship.

Kerem Kamal (Turkey) won Junior Worlds last year at a lower weight, and he was a two-time Cadet world silver medalist. However, in his last competition prior to this tournament, he lost his first match and failed to place. He got back on track in a big way in Slovakia. He allowed his opponents to score only four points against him, and he finished off the tournament with a 10-0 technical superiority victory over Vijay Vijay (India) in the finals.


Harushi Shimaya did not have a very long run in the tournament, but at least he can say he holds the odd distinction of leading all wrestlers across the three styles in terms of points per minute. He wrestled only one match in Slovakia. He was leading Chlovelle Van Meier (Germany) 8-6 before getting pinned. Van Meier went on to fall in the quarterfinals and end the day for Shimaya.

Per the UWW database, Yui Susaki (Japan) has won every international tournament she has entered since 2014. The run includes three Cadet world championships and now two Junior world championships. In this tournament, she won all four of her matches via 10-0 technical superiority, and she did so in very little time. Her 5.78 points per minutes was tops across all three styles outside of Shimaya's serendipitous day.

Magomedov not only led the freestyle field in terms of net match points, but he also had the best points per minute rate. He scored 53 points in his five matches, which were all terminated early.

(Note: Multiple match videos are missing from the UWW archive, so the match time data is partially incomplete.)


For the third-straight metric, Magomedov led the way. As previously stated, all five of his matches ended early. This included four wins via technical superiority, and in the round of 16, he pinned Sajad Gholamhossein Azizi (Iran).

Amin Yavar Kaviyaninejad (Iran) and Erbol Bakirov (Kyrgyzstan) both finished with four stoppage victories in the Greco-Roman tournament. In the 72-kilogram bracket, Kaviyaninejad had one close match that he won on criteria, but he also had three win by technical superiority and a fall over Nikoloz Tchikaidze (Georgia) in the finals. Bakirov made the finals of the 63-kilogram tournament with a pair of technical superiority wins and a decision. He then pinned Azamat Martinovitch Kairov (Russia) in the semifinals and Hassan Hassan Ahmed Mohamd (Egypt) in the finals.

The top spot for combined wins by fall and technical superiority was a five-way tie on in the women's tournament. The only one to finish with four early termination victories and not win the tournament was Tatyana Rizhko (Ukraine). Three of the five represented Japan in the tournament.


The most combined match points were scored in freestyle, while the Greco-Roman tournament featured the most shutout technical superiority wins and women's wrestling had the most matches end via fall.