#development

UWW donates mats to Panama Wrestling Federation

Thursday, June 16, 2022 - 12:15 By United World Wrestling Press

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PANAMA CITY, Panama (June 16) -- United World Wrestling donated two new wrestling mats for the development of wrestling in Panama.

With excellent management from the Panama Olympic Committee and the Panama National Wrestling Federation, together with the Development Department of the UWW, these mats were delivered to Panama.

One of the mats was given to the Barraza Pitbull Club, affiliated with the Panama National Wrestling Federation, and to celebrate such an important contribution to sports development; the club held sports gathering with athletes from the provinces of Cocle, Colon, and Panama at the Jesus Master Gomez Gymnasium in the popular Barraza neighborhood in Panama City.

The new mat will be available for the benefit of children and young sportsmen and athletes of the community. President of the Panama Olympic Committee, Damaris Young was also present at the occasion.

The second donated mat was donated to the Provincial League of Herrera, which will make it available to the wrestlers of the region at the Pepe Osorio Gymnasium in Chitré.

These actions taken by the UWW are an incentive to continue promoting wrestling in countries that do not have significant development in the sport.

All mats in the development mat program are a benefit of the partnership between United World Wrestling and Taishan. For Taishan mats, please contact taishan@taishansports.com.

#development, #WrestleBirmingham

UWW-KIMBA partnership helps Ahinsa win Sri Lanka’s first CWG medal

Wednesday, August 17, 2022 - 11:03 By United World Wrestling Press

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CORSIER-SUR-VEVEY, Switzerland (August 17): The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, which concluded on August 8, saw some thrilling wrestling action, with athletes from 10 countries finishing on the podium. New rivalries were established in the process and history was rewritten, the latter being true in the case of one wrestler in particular.

Nethmi AHINSA (SRI) won the bronze medal in the women’s freestyle 57kg category, sharing the podium with Hannah TAYLOR (CAN), who also won a bronze, silver medal winner Anshu MALIK (IND) and gold medallist from Odunayo ADEKUOROYE (NGR).

For Ahinsa and her country, though, the medal will hold a special significance. The bronze, after all, was Sri Lanka’s first medal in wrestling at the Commonwealth Games. And Ahinsa, only 18 years old, was the youngest to win a medal.

Ahinsa’s medal is also a testimony to the success of the UWW’s developmental programs.

Ahinsa had been a part of the Crysbro Next Champ Program, which is run by the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka. As a part of the program, the schoolgirl from the country’s North Western Province was sent to Hungary, where she got exposure to training and competing with some of the top-level athletes.

AHINSANethmi AHINSA (SRI) won a bronze medal in the 57kg weight class in Birmingham.

The UWW funded and supported her three-month training program at its partner center in Hungary, the Kozma István Hungarian Wrestling Academy (KIMBA), in collaboration with the NOC of Sri Lanka, which expressed its gratitude towards UWW and KIMBA.

The partnership between UWW and KIMBA came to fruition during President Lalovic’s visit to Budapest, Hungary, last year in December. During his trip, a partnership was initiated with KIMBA for the global development of the sport. Under the agreement, it was decided that KIMBA would host several international wrestling events, training camps, seminars and other programs.

The positive impact of the collaboration is for all to see, and Ahinsa’s medal at the Commonwealth Games underlines the importance UWW places on such developmental programs.