OSLO, Norway – In his first appearance at the Senior World Wrestling Championships, redshirt sophomore Peyton Omania of the Michigan State wrestling team ran into a tough opponent in his opening Greco-Roman bout on Saturday morning in Oslo, Norway.
The Spartan product drew 2021 World Junior champion Hasrat Jafarov of Azerbaijan in the first match of the qualification round, with the 67 kg weight class entrants wrestling on Mat A. Omania fell behind early, 1-0, after being called for passivity, then Jafarov lifted Omania for a throw and locked him up and turned him again on the edge for a pair of four-point moves. The USA team challenged the scoring of the moves, but it was denied, giving Jafarov the final point in a 10-0 technical-fall decision.
Jafarov went on to win his next match of the day, but was then beaten by technical fall in the quarterfinals by No. 1 seed and 2020 Olympic champion Mohammadreza Geraei (Iran), eliminating Omania from repechage-round contention and ending his stay in Oslo.
Omania, the 2019 Junior World bronze medalist and a 2021 NCAA Championships qualifier, will return to action on Nov. 6 when MSU begins the 2021-22 season with the Michigan State Open in East Lansing.
