Weekly FIVE!

Weekly FIVE! May 29, 2018

By Eric Olanowski

Reviewing the 2018 Cadet Pan-American C'ships and the updated list of Youth Olympic Games qualifiers. Also taking a look at next weeks 2018 U23 European Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. 

1. The USA Caps off Pan-American C'ships with Nine Freestyle Gold Medals
The United States of America capped off the final day of competition at the 2018 Pan-American Championships in Guatemala City, Guatemala with a 38-1 record and won nine of the possible ten gold medals.

More importantly, the quartet of American gold medals at YOG weights helped the United States punch four tickets to the 2018 Buenos Aires Games in October. Mexico, who won the fifth and final gold medal also locked up their spot for the 2018 Games.

Watch all freestyle matches from the 2018 Pan-American Championships.

Team Scores
GOLD - United States (245 points)
SILVER - Mexico (120 points)
BRONZE - Canada  (100 points)
Fourth - Guatemala (89 points)
Fifth - Dominican Republic  (74 points)

Axel ESQUIVEL (MEX) celebrates after defeating Paxton Liam CREESE (USA) in the 51kg Greco-Roman Pan-American finals. (Photo by Robbert Wijtman)

2. Mexico Qualifies Trio for Youth Olympic Games 
Mexico and the United States each had eight wrestlers vying for Greco-Roman gold medals at the 2018 Cadet Pan-American Championships. The winner of 45kg, 51kg, 60kg, 71kg, and 92kg qualified their nations spot for October’s Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Although USA wrestlers won five gold medals, none of those came at a Youth Olympic weight class. 

Mexico nabbed three gold medals against American opponents, with all three wins coming in weight categories where there was a Youth Olympic Games spot up for grabs. 

Igor ALVES DE QUEIROZ (BRA) and Jeremy GONZALEZ (ECU) claimed the two remaining YOG spots. 

Watch all Greco-Roman Matches from the 2018 Pan-American Championships.

Team Scores 
GOLD - United States (215 points) 
SILVER - Mexico (190 points) 
BRONZE - Guatemala (99 points) 
Fourth - Ecuador (61 points)
Fifth - Brazil (51 points) 

Tiare IKEI (USA), 49kg Cadet Pan-American champion. (Photo by Robert Wijtman)

3. USA Claims Six Women’s Wrestling Pan-Am Golds 
The United States capped off their impressive run at a Cadet Pan-American Championship team title with six individual championships, which included four births to the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina later this year. 

Venezuela and Cuba grabbed a pair of spots to the YOG, while Brazil and Mexico each had a solo wrestler punch their ticket to Buenos Aires.

Watch all women’s wrestling Matches from the 2018 Pan-American Championships.

TEAM SCORES
GOLD - United States (205 points) 
SILVER – Canada (131 points) 
BRONZE – Mexico (130 points) 
Fourth - Ecuador (80 points)
Fifth - Brazil (60 points) 

 Milaimys POTRILLE (CUB), 73kg Pan-American champion. (Photo by Robbert Wijtman)

4. Youth Olympic Games Qualifiers After the Cadet Asian, European and Pan-American C'ships.
The 2018 Youth Olympic Games will take place October 12-14 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. For qualification purposes, the highest placing athlete from the cadet continental championships will qualify their nations spot for the 2018 Games in both freestyle and Greco-Roman. 

In women's wrestling, the top two athletes from the cadet continental championships will qualify their nations spot for the Buenos Aires Games. 

Qualifiers After the Cadet Asian, European and Pan-American Championships 
Freestyle 
48kg – RUS, USA, and UZB
55kg – JPN, UKR, and USA 
65kg – AZE, IRI, and USA
80kg – IRI, RUS, and USA
110kg – MEX, IRI, and RUS 

Greco-Roman 
45kg – BUL, ECU, and IRI 
51kg – GEO, JPN, and MEX 
60kg – ARM, MEX, and UZB
71kg – JPN, MEX, and RUS 
92kg – IRI, MEX, and RUS 

Women's Wrestling 
43kg – AZE, BLR, BRA, JPN, MGL, and USA
49kg – HUN, JPN, SWE, USA, UZB, and VEN
57kg – HUN, IND, JPN, MDA, USA, and VEN
65kg – CHN, CUB, HUN, JPN, MEX, and UKR
73kg – BLR, CUB, JPN, TUR, USA, and UZB

5. U23 European Championships Begin Next Monday, June 4 
The 2018 U23 European Championships kick off next Monday, June 4 in Istanbul, Turkey. 

Wrestlers between the ages of 19 and 23 years old will compete to qualify for the 2018 U23 World Championships which take place November 12-18 in Bucharest, Romania. 

EVENT SCHEDULE

Weekly FIVE! in Social Media 

1.Big Move Monday! @pascal.eisele @ringen_drb

2. Watch as South Africa’s Madi MPHO tells the @unitednationshumanrights about her journey from orphan to adulthood and how wrestling educated her on having empathy. Incredible story.

3.Erica Wiebe: “One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light.”
.
Feeling like I’m ready to come out of the darkness soon.
I have a love/hate relationship with this part of the process. We push just past the point of breaking in the hopes we will become reborn, renewed, an evolution of who we once were. It’s magical. But it’s simultaneously physically, mentally, emotionally demanding. It’s why I love this sport.
@eweebz ?

4. How about this unusual wrestling singlets?? Как на счет таких необычных борцовских трико?? ?@pincancer #charity#wrestlingsinglet#wrestlers#gucci#louisvuitton#борцовскоетрико

5. Continuing series of wrestling "puzzles"? Продолжаем серию борцовских "головоломок"?
@wow_worldofwrestling #wrestling#coolpic#wrestlers#wow#sport#борцы#борьба#круто

Development

Croatia continues to Train and Develop their Coaches and Referees

By United World Wrestling Press

POREC, Croatia (June 3) – The Croatian Wrestling Federation continues to add educational activities for their coaches and referees. The previous year, they hosted a Level 2 course on the Introduction to Practice Planning. This year they organized a Level 3 coaching course on Periodization and Coaching Philosophy.  They also organized a Level 1 – Introduction to Referee course for their younger national referees. This year’s courses were conducted on 21-24 May in the beautiful city of Porec and was done in conjunction with Olympic Solidarity and United World Wrestling. 

The coaching course was led by UWW Educator Mr. Nenad Žugaj (CRO).  During the course, the 26 participants developed a better understanding of how periodization works when designing training sessions.  They were able to integrate those concepts and design their own plans.  The participants also focused on developing a coaching philosophy that they can use with their teams.

“The participants were active, I think they relaxed more and more every day and thus became more creative in their answers. I am pleased with the energy that prevailed and the positivity of the participants through jokes but also more serious topics.” said Mr. Žugaj  Eric, one of the coach participants said, “’I really liked the course and I would like to see such educations held more often. I especially liked how we, the coaches and referees, had joint lectures and assignments and were able to give opinions and views from different perspectives. I am looking forward to the next Level 4 course.”

CROParticipants look on doing the education courses held in Croaita during the final week of May. (Photo: United World Wrestling)

The referee course was led by UWW Educator Ms. Edit Dozsa (ITA). The course had 13 participants who focused on the fundamentals of being a good referee.  They focused on the evaluation of holds, how to properly start and end matches, proper referee mechanics, and keeping the athletes safe during bouts.  The referee participants were able to practice their skills through simulated matches and practical assessments. 

Both the coaches and referees had some working sessions together. They were able to analyze the roles of the coaches and of the referees. This helps give them a better understanding of the jobs that they do. They also discussed the importance of athlete safeguarding in wrestling.

“The cooperation with the educators Edit and Nenad was very good and successful. I visited the lectures on a couple of occasions and found them to be educational and interesting. The feedback from our coaches and judges was positive.” said Tin Bregović.

The Croatian Wrestling Federation also hosted a competition at the end of the courses. This competition allowed the coaches and referees to practice some of the skills that they had just learned during the course.