#Trnava2018

Betschart Ready to Rewrite Swiss Record Books

Tuesday, September 18, 2018 - 08:38 By Eric Olanowski

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TRNAVA, Slovakia (September 18) - Ramon BETSCHART (SUI) will take the mat Tuesday night with an opportunity to rewrite the Swiss Greco-Roman wrestling books when he competes for his country’s first junior world gold medal. 

His historic Trnava run comes a year after Betschart left Tampere, Finland with a 15th place finish at the 2017 World Championships. “I don’t regret anything from those championships, and not much has changed in my life over the past year. I attribute this year’s success to the recent rules changes. Particularly the par terre rule changes.” 

Prior to his Monday semifinal win, Switzerland's highest Greco-Roman finish came from Thomas ROETHISBERGER at the 1992 World Championships when he finished in fourth place.

“I didn’t know the history behind my semifinals match,” said Betschart. “Walking to the mat, I wasn’t thinking about making history, only concentrating on my match. I was just focused on the match and nothing else. But if it was me or another Swiss wrestler, I would have been happy.”

After his semifinals win, flanked by his Swiss teammates, Betschart said “This is an amazing feeling. It’s pure happiness. I really have no word for how I feel. I just hope I get the gold medal tomorrow.” 

Waking up Tuesday morning, nothing is going to change for Betchart. “Preparation-wise, I’m not going to change anything. Normal preparation and focusing on my warmup is going to be key.”  

Betschart will take on the 2018 Asian junior champion Mohammadhadi SARAVI (IRI) in the 87kg gold-medal bout. 

 “I know I will wrestle Mohammadhadi Saravi in tomorrow’s finals. But I don’t think much about my opponent. I have my way, the Swiss way, and that’s all I think about.”

If Betschart scores the gold medal on Tuesday night, he’ll join his uncle Hugo DIETSCHE (SUI) in rewriting the Swiss Greco-Roman record books. Dietsche won Switzerland’s first Olympic medal in 36 years when he finished with the bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angles Olympic Games. That 1984 bronze medal still stands as Switzerland’s last Greco-Roman Olympic medal. 

#development

Regional Tournament of Development and Education held within XXXI Pat Shaw Memorial

Tuesday, May 31, 2022 - 11:06 By United World Wrestling Press

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GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (May 30) -- The Regional Tournament of Development and Education was held within the framework of the XXXI INTERNATIONAL Wrestling Tournament "PAT SHAW," IN MEMORIAM, a tournament of a long tradition that is held in memory of the North American coach Mr. William "Pat" Shaw, who in 1947 introduced Olympic Wrestling in Guatemala preparing the national team that participated in the VI Central American and Caribbean Games that took place in the capital city of Guatemala in 1950.

The development event consisted of a course for coaches, a course for referees, a previous training camp and fundamentally the tournament for the U15, U17, U20 and Senior categories.

The Official Opening Ceremony of the courses and camps took place at the facilities of the CARDA, with the presence of the president of the National Wrestling Federation of Guatemala Ramón Francisco GONZÁLEZ PINEDA, the president of the United World Wrestling Americas Francisco Eduardo LEE LÓPEZ and Yuri MAIER United World Wrestling Sports and Development Officer for America. All these three events took place from May 24 to 26.

GUA
The stage at the Teodoro Palacios Flores for the XXXI Pat Shaw Wrestling Tournament. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

For the Coaches Course a total of 14 trainers took part. The UWW Educators were Millie Mayola AGUILAR CANIZALEZ (VEN), Héctor Luis CAMACHO RODRIGUEZ (VEN). And for the Referee Course 10 referees participated and it was in charge of the UWW Educator Omar Fabricio MUÑOZ CARRIEL (ECU).

The Training Camp took place in the Center of High Performance and Development of the Americas (CARDA), where more than 60 athletes, coaches and educators participated, in addition to the support of coach Reza AZIMI from Iran. In addition to the training sessions, a series of motivational conferences were given to the participant by the lecturer José LABBÉ

The tournament was held from May 27 to 29 at the National Gymnasium “Teodoro Palacios Flores” in Guatemala City. Almost 200 wrestlers participated from six countries: MEX, ESA, HON, NCA, CRC and GUA and a total of 287 bouts were carried out.

The management of the competition was done with the Arena system and all the official implementations of the UWW, with the support of the IT team of America.