Luis Orta bounces back from dengue to win bronze at the World Wrestling Championships in Astana

October 30, 2026

Cuba's Luis Alberto Orta won the bronze medal in the 67-kilogram Greco-Roman division at the World Wrestling Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Monday, October 27. In the third-place bout he beat Armenia's Slavik Galstyan 10-6, the same opponent he had defeated at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Cuban outlets Prensa Latina and Radio Taíno reported.

His path to the podium got complicated in the quarterfinals, where he lost 4-6 to Uzbekistan's Aytjan Khalmakhanov. Because Khalmakhanov went on to reach the final, Orta earned a spot in the repechage, where he beat American Otto Elliott Black 7-4 to reach the bronze-medal match. He finished the tournament with four wins and one loss.

It is the second senior world medal for the Havana native from Arroyo Naranjo, following his 2023 world title in Belgrade, and adds to his Olympic gold from Tokyo 2020. The result means more given the year he has had: Radio Taíno noted that Orta came down with dengue fever and missed the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo, though he did win gold earlier this year at the Pan American Championships in the United States.

It was a tougher day for Cuba in women's freestyle, where Milaymis Marín (76 kg) was left without a repechage chance after the wrestler who beat her in the first round lost in the semifinals.