At the wrestling worlds, Snyder comes back to beat Yoshida in the 97 kg final
· BehindLines newsroom
The senior wrestling world championships are being held at the Barys Arena in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 24 October to 1 November 2026. On Friday 30 October, the seventh day produced four finals, including the men's freestyle 97 kg bout between two wrestlers who have already won medals at the highest level.
According to the account from the international federation, United World Wrestling (UWW), American Kyle Snyder beat Japan's Arash Yoshida 4-4 and kept his title. Yoshida led 4-0 going into the final minute. Snyder then followed a single-leg attack with a turn behind his opponent before scoring the deciding points. UWW notes that Yoshida's fourth point came from an unsuccessful challenge by the American side. The specialist outlet FloWrestling describes the same sequence and says Snyder won on criteria, although the two texts do not give exactly the same second for the closing action.
This is Snyder's fifth world title, after 2015, 2017, 2022 and 2025, according to UWW, which credits him with nine world medals in all, an Olympic title in 2016 and a silver in 2021. On the way to the final he had eliminated Abdulrashid Sadulaev in the quarterfinal. Yoshida had beaten Hassan Yazdani. In the bronze-medal bouts, Sadulaev won 5-0 against Zbigniew Baranowski, and Yazdani won 5-0 against Akhmed Tazhudinov.
The same day, FloWrestling reports three other finals. In the men's 65 kg, Bo Bassett of the United States beat Armenia's Vazgen Tevanyan 9-1 in his senior world championships debut. In the women's 55 kg, American Everest Leydecker won 4-1 against Ukraine's Nataliia Klivchutska. In the 59 kg, India's Manisha beat American Abby Nette 8-6, which would make her India's first senior women's freestyle world champion, according to that outlet.
What is not yet known: the outcome of the men's finals scheduled for 31 October and 1 November, and therefore the final ranking by nation. The figures cited here come from the two reports of 30 October; the detailed official results should be checked on the federation's website.