Justin Lester placed fifth in the World Championships, qualifying the U.S. for the 2012 Olympics at his weight class. Larry Slater photo.

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Justin Lester fell just short in his quest to win a third World bronze medal.

Lester won his first four matches Monday, but dropped his final two to place fifth in the World Championships in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Sinan Erdem Dome.

Lester fell to Cuba’s Pedro Herrera 1-0, 1-0 in the bronze-medal match on Monday night.

“I thought I wrestled pretty well today,” Lester said. “I left everything out there in every match. I finished fifth and qualified the weight class for the Olympics. I got part of the job done. I’m just upset I’m not bringing home a medal.”

Lester won four straight matches before falling to 2009 World silver medalist Manuchar Tskhadaia of Georgia in the semifinals at 66 kg/145.5 lbs.

Lester (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) won World bronze medals in 2006 and 2007. He is back wrestling down at 66 kg at a World-level event for the first time since 2007.

Lester outlasted past Olympic and World silver medalist Kanatbek Begaliev of Kyrgyzstan 0-4, 2-0, 4-3 in a wild quarterfinal match.

Lester has qualified the U.S. for the 2012 Olympics in his weight class by virtue of finishing in the top six at the Worlds.

“I thought Justin wrestled pretty well most of the day,” U.S. National Coach Steve Fraser said. “He’s a great champion, but he didn’t quite have enough in the last match. He had a lot of tough matches, that’s for sure. It was a long day for him, wrestling six matches. He’s just now getting back down to his fighting weight. If I know Justin Lester, he’s going to come back swinging.”

American Justin Ruiz finished 1-2 at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. Ruiz won his first repechage match before falling 2-0, 1-0 to Timofej Dzeynichenko (Belarus), a 2010 World silver medalist who beat Ruiz in three periods at last year’s Worlds.

Ruiz won a World bronze medal in 2005 and lost in the bronze-medal match to place fifth in the World in 2010.

Ruiz (Orem, Utah/New York AC) fell to Sweden’s Jimmy Lidberg in the second round on Monday. Lidberg beat Ruiz in the bronze-medal match at the 2010 Worlds. Ruiz defeated Lidberg in the Curby Cup earlier this year.

“Ruiz wrestled some tough guys,” Fraser said. “The World is getting tougher and we need to keep getting better.”

American Spenser Mango was the aggressor on his feet, but was unable to score in a 1-0, 1-0 loss to Arsen Eraliev of Kyrgyzstan in a second-round match at 55 kg/121 lbs.

Mango was eliminated from the tournament when Eraliev fell one win short of reaching the finals.

Mango (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) was competing in his third straight World Championships after wrestling at the 2008 Olympics.

“Spenser is a talented kid,” Fraser said. “Spenser has to try and find some tough competition so he can keep getting better. He has the talent – he just has to put it together.”

Rovshan Bayramov of Azerbaijan won the title at 55 kg/121 lbs., Saeid Mourad Abdvali of Iran won at 66 kg/145.5 lbs. and Elis Guri of Bulgaria won at 96 kg/211.5 lbs.

Day 2 of the seven-day event is set for Tuesday in Istanbul. Greco-Roman wrestlers Joe Betterman (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), Cheney Haight (Boise, Idaho/New York AC) and Dremiel Byers (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) are scheduled to compete for the U.S.

Betterman competes at 60 kg/132 lbs., Haight is at 84 kg/185 lbs. and Byers is at 120 kg/264.5 lbs. Byers placed fifth in this event last year. He was a World champion in 2002, a World silver medalist in 2009 and a World bronze medalist in 2007. Betterman is competing in his second Worlds and Haight his first.

Wrestling will start at 12:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, an hour earlier than Monday's start time.

WORLD WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS
at Istanbul, Turkey, September 12

Greco-Roman results

55 kg/121 lbs.
1 Rovshan Bayramov (Azerbaijan)
2 Elbek Tazhyiev (Belarus)
3 Shujin Li (China)
3 Bekkhan Mankiev (Russia)
5 Péter Modos (Hungary)
5 Won Chol Yun (North Korea)
7 Gyu-Jin Choi (Korea)
8 Kohei Hasegawa (Japan
9 Roman Amoyan (Armenia)
10 Vyugar Ragymov (Ukraine) 

66 kg/145.5 lbs.
1 Saeid Morad Abdvali (Iran)
2 Manuchar Tskhadaia (Georgia)
3 Hyeon-Woo Kim (Korea)
3 Pedro Isaac Mulens (Cuba)
5 Frank Stabler (Germany)
5 Justin Lester (USA)
7 Tamás Lorincz (Hungary)
8 Kanatbek Begaliev (Kyrgyzstan)
9 Yuji Okamoto (Japan)
10 Pan Zheng (China)

96 kg/211.5 lbs.
1 Elis Guri (Bulgaria)
2 Jimmy Lidberg (Sweden)
3 Rustam Totrov (Russia)
3 Cenk Idem (Turkey)
5 Mohammed Abdelfatah (Egypt)
5 Tsimafei Dzeinicheka (Belarus)
7 Artur Aleksanyan (Armenia)
8 Mirko Englich (Germany)
9 Alin Alexuc-Ciurariu (Romania)
10 Shalva Gadabadze (Azerbaijan) 

U.S. GRECO-ROMAN RESULTS FROM MONDAY’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

55 kg/121 lbs. – Spenser Mango, Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Army), dnp/27th
LOSS Arsen Eraliev (Kyrgyzstan), 0-1, 0-1

66 kg/145.5 lbs. – Justin Lester, Colorado Springs, Colo. (U.S. Army) – 5th
WIN Aleksandar Maksimovic (Serbia), 1-0, 2-1
WIN Alberto Mota Brea (Dominican Republic), 4-0, 4-0
WIN Pan Zheng (China), 1-0, 6-2
WIN Kanatbek Begaliev (Kyrgyzstan), 0-4, 2-0, 4-3
LOSS Manuchar Tskhadaia (Georgia), 0-4, 0-4
LOSS Pedro Herrera (Cuba), 0-1, 0-1

96 kg/211.5 lbs. – Justin Ruiz, Orem, Utah (New York AC), dnp/20th
LOSS Jimmy Lidberg (Sweden), 0-2, 0-1
WIN Hassine Ayari (Tunisia), 2-0, 1-0
LOSS Timofej Dzeynichenko (Belarus), 0-2, 0-1