Jake Herbert (Evanston, Ill./New York AC), competing in his first World Championships, has reached the gold-medal finals at 84 kg/185 lbs. in men's freestyle wrestling at the World Wrestling Championships in Herning, Denmark.

Herbert defeated Bichinichvili of Germany, Sharipov of Azerbaijan, Yavaser of Turkey and Gadisov of Russia to reach the finals. He will face Aldatov of Ukraine in the finals.

Tervel Dlagnev (Columbus, Ohio/Sunkist Kids) reached the semifinals at 120 kg/264.5 lbs., where he was defeated. He will compete in a bronze-medal match later today. Like Herbert, he is competing in his first World Championships.

Dlagnev defeated Nunajev of Hungary, Shemarov of Belarus and Isayev of Azerbaijan to reach the semifinals, where he was beaten by Masoumi of Iran.

Their medal matches will be aired live on UniversalSports.com at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time at:
http://www.UniversalSports.com

Shawn Bunch (Columbus, Ohio/Gator WC) dropped his opening match at 60 kg/132 lbs. and was eliminated.

An updated story from Herning will be filed by Craig Sesker of USA Wrestling, who is onsite. 

For all the World Championships updates, visit TheMat.com Special Section at:
http://www.themat.com/specialevents/2009/worlds/default.php?EventID=21976