Sarah Hildebrandt gets her shot at a gold medal Wednesday afternoon.
The Granger native and former Penn High School standout has reached the finals of the women’s 50 Kg (110-pound) weight class at the World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway.
Hildebrandt won three matches Tuesday, including a 12-1 blowout of Russia’s Nadezhda Sokolova in the semifinals.
Hildebrandt meets Japan’s Remina Yoshimoto in the gold medal match Wednesday. Start time is 6 p.m. in Norway, or 12 noon in South Bend. The match will be streamed live on FloWrestling.
► Olympic bronze:Sarah Hildebrandt dominates in Japan to win Olympic bronze
Yoshimoto, age 21, is a relative newcomer to the sport. Hildebrandt, 28, was a World silver medalist in 2018 and bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympics two months ago. Hildebrandt will be the favorite.
Hildebrandt, the No. 1 seed, has been dominant throughout the tournament thus far. Her victories have all been by technical fall.
In her opener, early Tuesday morning, Hildebrandt put away Bohdana Yashchuk of Ukraine, 10-0, in 43 seconds. In the quarterfinals, Hildebrandt dispatched Lisa Ersel of Germany, 10-0 in 1:27. She ended both by turning an ankle lace multiple times to end the match.
Hildebrandt even had an easy time in the semifinals, despite facing a six-time age-group World medalist in Sokolova.
Hildebrandt had blown a big lead during the semifinal round at the Olympics games and she admitted that was on her mind.
“Like rewrite the stuff that happened at the Olympics, you know, ” Hildebrandt said after her matches. “Obviously played on my mind before I step on the mat. Then it’s on my mind when I’m 7-1, 6-1, the exact same scores during semis at the Games.
“But different mentality. Just finish it, go, go go. It’s not going to fix it (Olympics results), but it’s the best I can get.”
Meanwhile, former Culver Academies standout Kayla Miracle was scheduled to wrestle for a gold medal Tue in the 62 Kg (137-pound) weight class.
Miracle scored a tough, 2-0 victory over Lais Nunes de Oliveira of Brazil on Monday to reach the championship round.
