2006-10-01

World Championships Conclude in Guangzhou

Canada Wins Two Medals on Final Weekend of Competition

The 2006 Senior World Wrestling Championships concluded in Guangzhou, China on Sunday, October 1, 2006 with Canada winning two silver medals and showing further promise with three 5th placed finishes overall.

On the men’s side the team was rookie laden with only Mischa Japaridze (55kg) having more than two World Championships experience. Both Saeed Azarbayjani (60kg) and Travis Cross (84kg) were competing in their second World Championship while the remaining four men; Cleo Ncube (66kg), Matt Gentry (74kg), David Zilberman (96kg) and Jamie Cox (120kg) were all wrestling in their first World Championship.

The fifth place finish of Zilberman was the top performance for the men’s team. He lost a close match to Michel Batista of Cuba for the bronze medal but showed great promise in his first trip to the Senior Worlds.

The Canadian women’s team had considerably more experience with three World Medallists from 2005 leading the team to China. Tonya Verbeek (55kg) lost a close match to Ida-Theres Karlsson of Sweden and was eliminated when Karlsson lost to the eventual gold medallist, Yoshida of Japan. Carol Huynh (48kg) lost a bronze medal match to Francine de Paola of Italy and Ohenewa Akuffo (72kg) was bettered in her bronze medal match by Kristie Marano of the USA.

Martine Dugrenier (67kg) of Montreal equalled her silver medal performance of last year with wins over Voleriya Zlatova of the Ukraine, Eri Sakamoto of Japan and Diana Mudrag of Romania before losing the gold medal match to Rue Xui Jing of China.

Lyndsay Belisle (51kg) had her best World Championship performance getting to the gold medal match with wins over Tho-Kaew Sriprada of Thailand, A. Adashinskaya of Russia, Yeon Jin Park of Korea and Brigitte Wagner of Germany. She was beaten in the gold medal match by Hitomi Sakamoto of Japan and had to settle for silver.

In 2005 Canada placed three women on the medal podium and the top finish by the men’s team was 8th by both Evan MacDonald and Guivi Sissaouri.

Japan won the women’s competition with six medallists in seven weight classes. The Canadian women’s team was third behind Japan and China. The men’s freestyle title went to Russia followed by Iran and the United States. Canada was 14th in the team standings among 55 nations competing.

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