BAKU, Azerbaijan - Harry Lester clapped his hands three times, nodded and waved to the crowd.

He came up short of his gold-medal goal, but Lester still had a look of satisfaction on his face after turning in a very strong performance in capturing his second straight World bronze medal.

Lester rebounded from a controversial semifinal loss to 2004 Olympic champion Farid Mansurov of Azerbaijan to sweep Hungary's Tamas Lorincz and win a bronze medal at the World Championships on Monday night at the Heydar Aliyev Sport and Exhibition Complex.

Lester earned a 3-1, 2-1 win over Lorincz in the Greco-Roman bronze-medal match at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. by employing his aggressive, attacking and entertaining style to control the match from start to finish. Lester showed an abundance of resiliency and grit by coming back from a tough semifinal loss where three questionable calls by the officials went against him.

"I came out and wrestled every match as hard as I can," Lester said. "One match didn't go my way, but I wasn't going to let it spoil my chances to win a medal. I just didn't get the job done in the semifinals, but I knew I had to bounce back and at least get a medal."

The U.S. stands in second place in the team standings with 14 points after three of the seven weight classes completed. Korea leads with 17 points. 10 points are awarded for first place, 9 for second, 8 for third and so on through the top 10.

Lester (Akron, Ohio/Gator WC) went 5-1 on the day and looked very dominant in each of his wins. Ivan Ivanov, Lester's coach at the U.S. Olympic Education Center, praised his star pupil's effort.

"Harry proved to all of the people here that he deserved a gold medal," Ivanov said. "I'm really happy with his performance. Wrestling against the guy (Mansurov) in his home country is always tough and I think some things went against Harry that shouldn't have. But knowing he should have won that match will make him even hungrier to win that Olympic gold. He has grown so much and made so much progress. He definitely deserved the gold medal - I believe he was the best guy here at 66 kilos."

Lester now takes aim at winning a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics.

"I came out here and I felt I was the best guy in this weight class, and I know I'll feel the same way again next year," Lester said. "If I train hard, I'm not going to doubt myself. I definitely think I can win the Olympics next year. I've got two medals now and I know I'm capable of being the best in the World. I have to build on what I'm done these last two years and put it all together for the Olympics next year."

American Lindsey Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) showed amazing heart and resolve in coming back to place fifth at 55 kg/121 lbs. He qualified the U.S. for the 2008 Olympic Games at 55 kilos by finishing in the top eight in his weight class.

"It's hard to come so close to winning a medal and walk away empty-handed," Durlacher said. "At the same time, a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders by qualifying this weight for the Olympic Games. It's a huge honor to qualify this weight for the Olympics. I can just train straight through and concentrate on making our Olympic Team and not have to go through any of those qualifying tournaments."

Durlacher rebounded from a third-round loss to eventual champion Hamid Sourian of Iran and won back-to-back matches in a span of about 15 minutes to advance to the bronze-medal match.

Durlacher then fell to Serbia's Kristijan Fris in the bronze-medal match. It was Durlacher's third match in about half an hour. Fris, meanwhile, was well-rested. He lost to Sourian in the semifinals and only had to wrestle once in the second session. He sat and waited while Durlacher battled through two matches to reach the bronze-medal bout.

"It was extremely difficult to come back with all those matches in a short period of time," Durlacher said. "You have to keep a level hand and keep thinking positive thoughts. It's definitely an advantage making the semifinals and only have the one match after you lose. Wrestling back-to-back-to-back in three straight matches, I was extremely exhausted by the bronze-medal match."

Durlacher ran into a tough foe in Sourian, who won his third straight World title. Sourian beat Durlacher in the semifinals of the 2006 Worlds. Durlacher came back to win a bronze medal after that setback.

"The Iranian is a tough kid," Durlacher said. "He has a lot of leverage on me. He's about 6 feet tall and he's hard to wrestle. He's really on top of his game right now and I need to go back and see what I did last year against him. I wrestled him a lot closer last year."

First-time World Team member Joe Betterman of the U.S. dropped his first-round match to 2007 European Championships runner-up Stig Andre Berge of Norway at 60 kg/132 lbs. Betterman fell 3-2, 1-1. Betterman was eliminated when Berge lost his next match.

The 23-year-old Betterman (Chicago, Ill./USOEC/New York AC) was a late replacement on the U.S. team for 2006 World champion Joe Warren. Betterman was unable to finish in the top eight and did not qualify the weight class for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. The U.S. still has three other tournaments, including the Pan American Championships in Colorado Springs, where it can qualify the 60 kilo class for the Olympics.

Greco-Roman action continues tomorrow as Americans T.C. Dantzler (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC), Brad Vering (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) and Justin Ruiz (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) take the mat. Dantzler wrestles at 74 kg/163 lbs., Vering competes at 84 kg/185 lbs. while Ruiz is at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. Ruiz is a past World bronze medalist while Dantzler and Vering have each taken fifth at the Worlds.

Dantzler drew returning World champion Volodimir Shatskykh of the Ukraine in the first round.