ZAGREB, Croatia — The Cliff Keen Wrestling Club’s Real Woods capped his incredible 2025 run with a 65kg freestyle bronze medal at the Senior World Championships on Tuesday (Sept. 17) at the Arena Zagreb.
Woods, who is in just his first full year of freestyle competition, posted a 4-1 record en route to bronze in his world debut — and in a weight class that featured all four medalists from the 2024 Olympics and has been notoriously challenging for U.S. wrestlers. Prior to Woods, the USA had medaled at 65/66kg just once over the last 20 years.
He earned a gritty 3-1 win against Canada’s Peiman Biabani in the medal round, earning a pair of shot-clock points while pushing the action then fighting off and clearing out of a deep Biabani single-leg shot over the final :20 of the second period.
After falling to Iran’s two-time world champion Rahman Amouzad, 11-1, in the quarterfinals, Woods rebounded with back-to-back repechage wins after Amouzad advanced to the final to pull him back in. He rolled past Kyrgyzstan’s Ikromzhon Khadzhimurodov, 10-0, with a go-behind takedown and four guts in just :63 then used a similar fast start in a 7-5 decision against India’s Sujeet Kalkal. He scored an immediate go behind, exposure and reversal in the opening :15 then tacked on a two-point chest wrap in the final :05 of the first period.
Austin Gomez went 2-1 at 70kg and opened with a back-to-back tech falls, including a 10-0 win over Tunisia’s Khairiddine Ben Tili in his second match with three takedowns, a lace and a gut in just :59.
He dropped a heartbreaker, 10-8, to Kazakhstan world champ Nurkozha Kaipanov in the quarterfinals after leading 6-0 with two takedowns and a gut in the first and 8-6 with :66 to go. Kaipanov scored two takedowns late, including one off a last-second Gomez headpinch attempt. He was eliminated when Kaipanov was upset in the semifinals.
