#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.

#CanadaWrestling

Former world champion Di Stasio of Canada retires

Thursday, March 13, 2025 - 17:45 By United World Wrestling Press

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OTTAWA, Canada (March 13) -- After nearly 15 years of representing Canada, Justina DI STASIO (CAN) has decided to retire.

During her career, Di Stasio built an impressive resume that will go down as one of the all-time greats in Canadian wrestling history. The 32-year-old represented Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Di Stasio won gold medal at the World Championship in 2018, a Pan-American Games gold medal in 2019 and Commonwealth Games gold in 2022. In addition, she is a multiple-time Pan-Am Championships gold medalist.

While there have been many memorable moments, a few stood out to Di Stasio, including her start with the national team, her win at the 2018 worlds, being coached on the national team by two-time Olympic medalist Tonya VERBEEK (CAN), and making her first Olympics in 2024.

“Winning worlds was a special moment, especially because I could hear my parents cheering from the stands," Di Stasio said. "It reminded me of my tournaments as a kid. It also helped me frame everything in my life better. I realized it is about the journey and not the destination. It was amazing to feel the way I did on that one day, but it was only one day. I had worked so hard in the lead up, but I realized I had to enjoy those days too. I still wanted to be the best in the world and I never didn’t train like it, but from that point, I made sure to enjoy my wrestling every day.”

That love for the sport kept Di Stasio going despite setbacks that stalled her dream of competing at the Olympics. After failing to qualify for the Rio and Tokyo Games, Di Stasio qualified for Paris 2024, eventually finishing 12th.

“Making it to the Olympics came with lots of pressure, but good pressure. I had won everything else and trained every day thinking I could be an Olympic champion. Even though it was a heart-breaking result, I know I couldn’t have worked harder and that helped me accept the result. I would have loved to make it there when I was younger, but I think I needed to be more mature to handle the result.”

Read full news on Wrestling Canada Lutte website.