The Cuban Luis Orta fell this Monday in the quarterfinals of the 67 kg Greco-Roman wrestling category at the Senior World Championships in Astana 2026, held at the Barys Arena in Kazakhstan, but remains in the tournament thanks to the repechage system of the International Wrestling Federation.
Orta, Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020 and world champion in Belgrade 2023, lost to the Uzbek Aytjan Khalmakhanov by 4-6 in a fight that slipped away from him in the first period.
According to the report from United World Wrestling, Khalmakhanov went into the break with a 6-0 lead after a failed Cuban protest that awarded an additional point to the Uzbek wrestler. In the second period, Orta narrowed the score to 4-6, but was unable to complete the comeback.
What opens the door to bronze for the Cuban athlete is that Khalmakhanov later won his semifinal against the Armenian Slavik Galstyan by 4-0 and advanced to the final, where he will compete against the reigning world champion, Iranian Saeid Esmaeili Leivesi. According to UWW regulations, all wrestlers who lost to a finalist are entitled to compete in the repechage; the winner of each repechage group faces the loser of the corresponding semifinal, and the victor of that match takes home the bronze.
For Orta, the journey is not easy. According to USA Wrestling, his first opponent in the repechage will be the winner of the match between American Otto Black and Australian Tsuchika Shimoyamada. If he succeeds in that round, the Cuban would face Galstyan in the bronze medal match. He needs to win two consecutive matches on Tuesday to make it to the podium.
Before the defeat against Khalmakhanov, Orta had showcased his best version. First, he dispatched the Algerian Fayssal Benfredj with a resounding technical superiority of 9-0, and then he staged a dramatic comeback against the Georgian Diego Chkhikvadze—who had led 5-0—to ultimately win 12-8.
The rival who stopped Orta is not an unknown. Khalmakhanov, just 20 years old, was the world champion at 63 kg in 2025 and moved up a category for this tournament. He had already defeated Orta 9-0 in March during the Professional Wrestling League in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, making Astana their second encounter with the same adverse result for the Cuban.
The year 2026 has been inconsistent for Orta. In addition to the defeat in Tashkent, he missed the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo in July due to an arbovirus.
Cuba arrived at this World Cup with the declared goal of surpassing the 27th place it achieved in Zagreb 2025, where it only secured a bronze medal.
There is a precedent that fuels optimism: at Paris 2024, Orta also fell in the quarterfinals —against the same Esmaeili, with a score of 0-9— and then made a comeback in the repechage to win the Olympic bronze, defeating Galstyan in the process. The repechage for group three in Greco-Roman wrestling is scheduled for this Tuesday at 10:30 local time at the Barys Arena in Astana.
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