ISTANBUL, Turkey — The Cliff Keen Wrestling Club’s Jimmy Kennedy posted a perfect 5-0 record en route to the 61kg/134-pound gold medal at the Yasar Dogu International on Sunday (Feb. 16)”. It was Kennedy’s first competitive appearance in 2014 and his fourth medal — second gold — in four straight overseas tournaments since October.
“I felt pretty good throughout the tournament,” said Kennedy. “I was a little rusty in my first match, but after that my motion picked up a lot, and I was able to create more scoring opportunities. I felt the same way in the final. Once I felt him out a little, I was able to start getting better angles and get to my attack positions. That was ultimately the difference in the match.”
“Jimmy had a great training camp here in Turkey, which really lead to his preparation for this tournament,” said CKWC coach Andy Hrovat. “He has always been very fast and strong, and now as he masters his positioning and match strategies, he is becoming very hard to beat. Jimmy was able to control each match by keeping his opponents off balance. His speed and timing improved in each match which forced his opponents to wrestle defensively. He has the rare ability to score offensively as well as counter-offensively. He is always looking to turn an opponents shot into an offensive score of his own.”
Kennedy defeated Mongolia’s Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan, 7-2, in the championship match, taking the initial lead on a first-period passivity point before blowing the match open with two takedowns and two pushouts in the second. He allowed a late takedown in the closing seconds of the match — the only points he allowed in five matches.
In all, he outscored his opposition, 38-2, on the day.
Kennedy defeated Russians in back-to-back matches in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. He scored all his points in the first period in the former bout, earning a passivity point, a pushout and a late single-leg takedown to beat Egor Ponomarev, 4-0. He surged in the subsequent semifinal against Murshid Mutalimov, taking an early lead on a first-period pushout before finishing on a pair of second-period takedowns to claim a 5-0 decision.
Kennedy, who is inexplicably unranked in the latest FILA world rankings, knocked off a pair of ranked wrestlers in his final two matches. Russia’s Mutalimov is currently No. 15, while Enkhsaikhan is No. 9.
Kennedy will earn some recovery time before getting diving into the first CKWC training camp. The CKWC will host two three-week camps leading up to the U.S. Open in April.
CKWC RESULTS
Jimmy Kennedy, 61kg/134 pounds
First Round – tech. fall Noriyuki Takasuka (Japan), 10-0
Second Round – tech. fall Krum Churchurov (Bulgaria), 12-0
Quarterfinals – dec. Egor Ponomarev (Russia), 4-0
Semifinals – dec. Murshid Mutalimov (Russia), 5-0
Final – dec. Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan (Mongolia), 7-2
Finished as the 61kg champion with a 5-0 record
