Wrestling finals at Brock
Canadian wrestlers will be taking the first step to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo starting today in St. Catharines.
As the first national championships of a new four-year Olympic cycle, the 2017 Junior/Canadian Wrestling Championships taking place at Brock University will be a key event for ranking athletes for national team selections. These wrestlers will go to compete for Canada at meets throughout the season, including the junior and senior world championships and the Francophonie Games.
“The spotlight will shine on Canada’s most-talent wrestlers as they vie for Canadian championship titles,” said Don Ryan, president of Wrestling Canada Lutte, the sport’s national governing body.
Competitions which wrap up with men’s Greco-Roman wrestling Sunday is expected to be fierce in all divisions at the co-ed event being held in the Ian Beddis Gym.
“The championships following an Olympic Games are highly anticipated, especially with new up-andcoming athletes looking to dethrone veteran champions,” Wrestling Canada Lutte executive director Tamara Medwidsky said.
High-performance director Leigh Vierling said technical staff will have a busy weekend assessing performance with an eye toward putting together national teams.
“We are excited to see the athletes perform on Canada’s biggest stage as we start the new quadrennial.”
Many Brock wrestlers are among the participants confirmed to compete in the various age and weight categories. Lists for junior and senior entries, respectively, are available online at http://1umxx21xcb mi5khaw2dgwp52iz-wpengine. netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017_Junior_Entries-website_v2.pdf and http://1um xx21xcbmi5khaw2dgwp52iz-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/ uploads /2017/03/2017_ Senior_ Entries w eb site_v2.pdf.
Draws will be finalized following weigh-ins and the completion of seeding.
Brock University and the Brock Wrestling are co-hosting the event in collaboration with the Ontario Amateur Wrestling Association.
Each day of the three-day event will feature competition in different categories. Action in junior men’s freestyle and junior women’s division is taking place today, with senior men’s freestyle and senior women’s matches set for Saturday and junior and senior men on the mat Sunday for the Greco-Roman portion of the tournament.
A big local highlight Saturday will be the induction of long-time Brock head coach Marty Calder into the Wrestling Canada Hall of Fame. Calder, who last month was selected Sport Niagara coach of the year for 2016, is being enshrined as an athlete, while William Hogarth is being inducted as a builder.
In addition to wrestling at 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and four years later at the Summer Games in Atlanta, Calder finished fifth at the 1993 Senior World Championships, won gold at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 1999 Pan Am Games.
Hogarth served as team manager for two Olympic Games teams, two senior Pan Am championship teams, as well as two junior and two senior world championships teams. He was the manager for Ontario’s Canada Games team and on three occasions served as provincial team manager for Ontario. He volunteered at the 2015 Pan Am Games held in Toronto and across southern Ontario and at the last year’s Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Follow the event for live updates on Twitter (twitter.com/WrestlingCanada) and Facebook (www.facebook. com/WrestlingCanada). Live scoring updates and webstreaming will be available on TrackWrestling.