Adeline Gray wins her semifinal match at the FILA Women’s World Championships on Thursday. Ikuo Higuchi photo.

SHERWOOD PARK, Canada – Adeline Gray has reached the finals of the FILA Women’s World Championships.

Gray took control early before recording a first-period pin over India’s Kaur Navjot in the semifinal round at 67 kg/147.5 lbs. on Thursday afternoon at Millennium Place.

Gray, a 2011 World bronze medalist, advances to face 2012 Junior World champion Dorothy Yeats of Canada in the finals. The medal round in women’s freestyle wrestling is scheduled for 7 p.m. Mountain Time.

Gray, 21, a past Junior World champion, will meet Yeats, 19, for the first time. Gray is looking to become the sixth U.S. wrestler to win a World title in women’s freestyle. Clarissa Chun is the most recent, winning it all in 2008. Chun will compete here on Saturday.

Gray earned a big quarterfinal win over Japan’s Yoshiko Inoue, winning 1-1, 3-0. Inoue was the other World bronze medalist at 67 kilos in 2011.

The U.S. nearly had a second finalist before China’s Yanan Sun held off American Alyssa Lampe 2-1, 4-4, 2-2 in a wild semifinal match at 51 kg/112.25 lbs. Lampe rallied for a 4-0 deficit to win the second period.

Lampe was in on Sun’s legs late in the match before Sun countered and exposed Lampe’s back to the mat. Lampe scored a late takedown to tie the score 2-2, but Sun won the period and the match by virtue of scoring a two-point move.

Lampe, wrestling in her second World Championships, will face Kazakhstan’s Abdutalipova Abdutalipova in the bronze-medal match.

American Leigh Jaynes, wrestling in her second World Championships, fell short of placing at 59 kg/130 lbs. on Thursday.

Jaynes fell in three periods in the quarterfinals to Mongolia’s Munkhtuya Tungalag, who prevailed 3-0, 0-1, 3-1. Jaynes took a 1-0 lead early in the third period before Tungalag rallied. The Mongolian fell short of the finals, eliminating Jaynes from the tournament.

Day 2 of the three-day event is set for Friday in Canada. Americans Helen Maroulis (Rockville, Md./New York AC) and Iris Smith (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) are scheduled to compete.

Maroulis placed fifth in the 2011 World Championships at 55 kg/121 lbs. Smith is making her first appearance at the Worlds since she captured a World title in 2005 at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.

Competition is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Mountain Time on Friday with the medal matches set for 7 p.m.

FILA WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sherwood Park, Canada

Finals matchups

51 kg/112.25 lbs.
Jessica MacDonald (Canada) vs. Yanan Sun (China)

59 kg/130 lbs.
Zalina Sidakova (Belarus) vs. Lan Zhang (China)

67 kg/147.5 lbs.
Adeline Gray (USA) vs. Dorothy Yeats (Canada)

U.S. performances

51 kg/112.25 lbs. – Alyssa Lampe, Colorado Springs, Colo. (Sunkist Kids)
WIN Anzhela Dorogan (Azerbaijan), fall 1:55
WIN Roksana Zasina (Poland), 1-0, 1-0
LOSS Yanan Sun (China), 1-2, 4-4, 2-2
vs. Abdutalipova Abdutalipova (Kazakhstan)

59 kg/130 lbs. – Leigh Jaynes, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC)
LOSS Munkhtuya Tungalag (Mongolia), 0-3, 1-0, 1-3

67 kg/147.5 lbs. – Adeline Gray, Colorado Springs, Colo. (New York AC)
WIN Dzhanan Manolova (Bulgaria), 3-0, 2-0 
WIN Yoshiko Inoue (Japan), 1-1, 3-0
WIN Kaur Navjot (India), fall 1:59
vs. Dorothy Yeats (Canada) in gold-medal match