Japanese trio head to 2015 World Wrestling Championships as favourites to retain titles after topping world rankings

Japan's Saori Yoshida will aim to retain her women's 53kg freestyle title ©Getty Images

Three Japanese wrestlers will head to next month’s World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas as the overwhelming favourites to retain their titles after they maintained their position at the top of their respective division’s rankings.

Kaori Icho's monopoly of the women’s freestyle 58 kilogrammes category has continued so far in 2015, with the three-time Olympic champion having claimed gold at May’s Asian Wrestling Championships after delivering a commanding performance in the final.

The only woman likely to arrive in Las Vegas as a bigger favourite to claim gold will be Icho’s team mate Saori Yoshida, who has enjoyed a decade of dominance in the women’s 53kg division, having won the world title every year since 2004.

Sweden’s Sofia Mattsson will be aiming to bring Yoshida’s reign to an end as she comes into the Championships, which will run from September 7 to 12, fresh from having clinched gold in the division at the inaugural European Games in Baku.

Eri Tosaka is the third Japanese wrestler to begin the defence of her title as the overwhelming favourite although Azerbaijan’s Mariya Stadnyk is sure to provide strong opposition in the 48kg division.

Stadnyk has been unbeaten since her loss in the semi-final stage of last year’s World Championships, with her run having included becoming the European Games champion in front of a home crowd, while she also earned victory at the Poland Open in July.

Another victor at a Continental Championships was America’s Adeline Gray, who defeated home favourite Justina Distacio of Canada in the gold medal bout at the Pan American Games in Toronto last month.

America's Jordan Burroughs will bidding for a second world title, having retained his Pan American Games crown in Toronto ©Getty Images

Distacio will now hope to turn the tables on Gray, who is currently the reigning world champion and world number one, but the Canadian will need to cause upsets in Las Vegas as she currently lies fifth in the world rankings.

Gray’s compatriot Jordan Burroughs will be aiming to underline his billing as the man to beat in the men’s 74kg division in front of a home crowd and built up to the World Championships by earning his second Pan American Games gold, having beaten Ecuador’s Yoan Blanco in the final.

Fellow gold medallists in Toronto, Brent Metcalf of the United States and Cuba’s Reineris Salaz Perez, occupy second positions in the 65kg and 86kg divisions respectively as they prepare for the eagerly-anticipated event in Las Vegas.

Metcalf will hope to see off the challenge of world number one Sayed Ahmad Mohammadi of Iran in the 65kg division, while Perez sits behind only European Games gold medallist Abdulrashid Sadulaev of Russia in the 86kg event.

Unlike the women’s competitions where four reigning world champions are currently ranked as the world number ones, only Sadulaev and North Korea’s 57kg wrestler Kyong-Il Yang have been able to maintain their positions from 11 months ago.