WRESTLING FOR RECOGNITION
Largest meet in Canada held here
With nearly 700 competitors, Windsor played host this weekend to Canada’s largest-ever wrestling tournament.
“It’s about 50 (entries) bigger than we have ever had before,” said organizer Bill Hogarth, a retired Essex high school wrestling coach and member of the Windsor-Essex County Sports Hall of Fame.
The event at the University of Windsor’s Dennis Fairall Fieldhouse had male and female wrestlers attending from every province and territory in the country.
There were about 70 athletes participating from the Windsor and Essex County area, Hogarth said.
Wrestling Canada helped back the event known as the National Cadet/Juvenile Wrestling Championships. The wrestlers were between the ages of 15 to 18.
The tournament, which included both freestyle and Greco-Roman competitions, also served as trials for Canada’s international cadet team.
The recent gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics by Canada’s Erica Wiebe has helped spur a little uptick of interest in the sport, Hogarth said.
“It was a fantastic accomplishment,” he said. “Wrestling at times is a hard sell because there is no publicity or credit for the sport that others have (in Canada).
“Wrestling is a national sport in 20 other countries. So, when we win an Olympic medal, we are beating 20 other countries that treat this sport like we do hockey.”
Along with a local organizing committee, there were over 120 student and adult volunteers helping to run the event, Hogarth said.
Wrestling at times is a hard sell because there is no publicity or credit for the sport.