Helen Maroulis won four matches during the first session of the World Championships on Thursday. Larry Slater photo.

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Americans Elena Pirozhkova and Helen Maroulis have qualified their weight classes for the Olympic Games.

Now they want to bring home some hardware from the World Championships.

Pirozhkova and Maroulis will have that opportunity when they will wrestle for bronze medals at the Worlds on Thursday night at the Sinan Erdem Dome.

Pirozhkova and Maroulis qualified their weight classes for the Olympics for the U.S. by virtue of finishing in the top six at the Worlds.

Pirozhkova (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) won her first four matches before running into Japanese legend Kaori Icho in the semifinals. Icho, a six-time World champion and two-time Olympic champion, downed Pirozhkova 3-0, 3-0 at 63 kg/138.75 lbs.

Icho beat Pirozhkova in the World finals in 2010. Pirozhkova will face two-time World champion Ruixue Jing of China in the bronze-medal match. Jing won Worlds up a weight class at 67 kg/147.5 lbs. in 2006 and 2007. She was a World silver medalist in 2005.

Maroulis (Rockville, Md./New York AC) won her first two matches before running into legendary Saori Yoshida of Japan in the third round at 55 kg/121 lbs. Yoshida pinned Maroulis in the first period. Yoshida is seeking her ninth World title. She owns two Olympic gold medals.

Yoshida made the finals to pull Maroulis back into the repechage. Maroulis came back to win two straight matches in the repechage to advance to the bronze-medal match.

Maroulis, who turns 20 in four days, will battle past World medalist Ida-Theres Nerell of Sweden in the bronze-medal match. Nerell, 28, is a past World silver and bronze medalist who won the European Championships this year. She was fifth in the 2008 Olympic Games.

Maroulis won a Junior World silver medal earlier this year.

American Kelsey Campbell (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) had the lead late in her first-round match before falling to past World silver medalist Agata Pietrzyk of Poland 0-1, 2-0, 6-1 at 59 kg/130 lbs.

Piertzyk lost her next match, eliminating Campbell. Campbell placed fifth in her first Worlds appearance in 2010.

U.S. women’s wrestlers Adeline Gray (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) and Ali Bernard (New Ulm, Minn./Gator WC) are scheduled to compete Friday along with men’s freestyle wrestler Nick Simmons (Corvallis, Ore./Sunkist Kids).

Gray competes at 67 kg/147.5 lbs. and Bernard wrestles at 72 kg/158.5 lbs. Gray placed fifth in this event in 2009 and Bernard was fifth in the 2008 Olympics.

Simmons wrestles at 55 kg/121 lbs. He is competing in his first Worlds.

Wrestling on Day 5 of 7 of the World Championships is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. local time on Friday.

U.S. RESULTS FROM THURSDAY’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

55 kg/121 lbs. – Helen Maroulis, Rockville, Md. (New York AC)
WIN Aiym Abdildina (Kazakhstan), 6-0, 6-2
WIN Valya Trandeva (Bulgaria), 1-2, fall 0:33
LOSS Saori Yoshida (Japan), fall 1:09
WIN Emriye Musta (Turkey), 5-2, 6-2
WIN Alma Valencia Acosto (Mexico), 5-0, 4-0
vs. Ida-Theres Nerell (Sweden) in bronze match

59 kg/130 lbs. – Kelsey Campbell, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Sunkist Kids)
LOSS Agata Pietrzyk (Poland), 0-1, 2-0, 6-1

63 kg/138.75 lbs. – Elena Pirozhkova, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Gator WC)
WIN Sandra Roa Velandia (Colombia), 7-5, 0-1, 1-0
WIN Luz Clara Vazquez (Argentina), 3-1, 2-1
WIN Hanna Johansson (Sweden), 1-0, 2-0
WIN Laura Skujina (Latvia), 1-0, 3-0
LOSS Kaori Icho (Japan), 0-3, 0-3
vs. Ruixue Jing (China) in bronze match