News Page
Smith Made a Miracle for Women at Worlds
From Media Reports(October 13, 2005)
As a sergeant in the United States Army, Iris Smith knows that a regimented life has also helped her succeed on the wrestling mat. But the 25-year-old native of Albany, Ga., also knew that she might need some spiritual help when she faced five-time world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi of Japan in the 158.5-pound championship match in Budapest, Hungary.
That was never more apparent than when Smith threw Hamaguchi to her back one minute into the first period, which Smith won 3-1, and (after Hamaguchi won the second period, 1-1) scored on a push out her Japanese opponent which provided the winning margin in Smith’s 1-0 third-period victory in the World Championships, Sept. 30.
“It feels so good,” said Smith who jumped into the arms of her coach Shon Lewis after earning her first gold medal. “I was raised religious. Before my match, I prayed. I feel like through Him all things are possible. I totally believe in miracles. I wrestled every match to the best of my ability. I didn’t care who wrestled. I went out and did my best. And it worked.”
This is not the first time Smith had competed on the world stage — she finished seventh in 2000 — and had met Hamaguchi before.
 |
“I wrestled her at the World Cup five months ago,” Smith said. “She beat me. But I felt I could beat her. I decided to do my own thing. Shon helped me out to get prepared. My strategy was to keep moving. (National coach) Terry Steiner had everything ready and he told me what to do. It worked.”
This has been a long road for Smith, whose tour in the Army forced her to miss the 2001 championships and eventually yielded the weight to Toccara Montgomery, who competed in three straight Worlds and the 2004 Olympics.
But in the end, Smith knew that she also provided a spark for her American teammates by capturing the only gold medal for the team adorned in red, white and blue.
“I wanted to hear the national anthem and see my flag raised. I love my country. It motivated me. I wanted to get my country another gold medal,” Smith said. “When it was over, I looked at Shon’s and Terry’s faces. When I saw them, I thought, ‘I guess I won.’ I was instantly thanking God. I was so pumped and teary eyed.”
48K/105.5 pounds
Jenny Wong (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids), who won a bronze medal in her only other World Championships (2003), won her first two bouts with each going three periods.
In her 2-3, 2-0, 3-0 victory over Dashdavaa Baasanjargal (Mongolia), Wong scored seven consecutive points over the match after giving up a three-point move on an arm spin by her Mongolian opponent. Wong forced a third period by scoring two points on a lift with five seconds gone in overtime. In the third period, Wong clinched the match when she fought off a similar crotch lift by Baasanjargal.
That put Wong into a second-round match against Francine DePaola of Italy, who appeared to have the upper hand on Wong when her takedown with 29 seconds in the third period tied the score at 1-1. But Wong fought back and scored four points when she caught her Italian opponent and threw her to her back with 13 seconds left in the period.
That would be Wong’s final happy moment before Makiko Sakamoto scored six takedowns over two periods for a 6-0, 6-2 quarterfinal victory. Wong’s only points came on a two-point lift with 44 seconds left in the second period that cut Sakamoto’s margin to 5-2.
“I knew coming in that the Japanese wrestler is always technical and tough,” said Wong, who was eliminated from medal contention when Sakamoto lost a semifinal match to the eventual gold medalist Ren Xueceng of China. “I would have to bring my game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t all there. This is unacceptable to me and it makes me even more motivated for next year.”
51K/112.25 pounds
Stephanie Murata (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) had gone nearly three years since her last World Championships and four since winning a silver medal in 2001.
But the 35-year-old native San Mateo, Calif., appeared to be just as strong in 2005 as she had in the past as Murata destroyed Emese Szabo (Hungary), 4-0, 3-0, and pinned Nurzat Shaylobaeva (Kyrgyzstan) in 42 seconds.
Those victories put Murata into the quarterfinal where she appeared ready to master her foe when a takedown with 35 seconds gone gave her the first period, 1-0 over Erica Sharp of Canada.
Unfortunately, the rest of the match belonged to the Canadian who outscored Murata, 10-0, over the next two minutes. The most damaging points by Sharp was a three-point takedown with 16 seconds left that broke open a scoreless third period.
“The Canadian girl was more intense in the third period at the end,” said U.S. coach Bill Scherr. “Stephanie is as good technically as anyone. Her intensity is the missing part.”
Murata’s eighth world tournament came to an end when Sharp lost to eventual gold medalist Hitomi Sakamoto of Japan in a semifinal match.
55K/121 pounds
Tina George (Colorado Springs, Colo./US Army) also had plenty of experience on her side once she entered her seventh World Championships. But the two-time world silver medalist knew she was in a tough bracket that included 2004 Olympic champion Saori Yoshida of Japan (who George also lost to in the 2003 world finals) and Canadian Tonya Verbeek, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist.
George was looking forward to a matchup against these two after George failed to make the 2004 U.S. Olympic team and had no trouble defeating Naida Otgonjargal of Mongolia, 2-0, 2-0 in a first-round match.
That set up a meeting with Verbeek, who barely defeated George 1-0 off a single-leg takedown with 34 seconds gone in the first period. The Canadian added an exclamation mark in the second period by scoring on three takedowns and a tilt for a 6-0 major victory.
“Something didn’t click right,” George said. “It happens every once in awhile. You try to wrestle through it and make the best situation possible.”
59K/130 pounds
Sally Roberts (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) had no trouble reaching the semifinals as she punished Dorj Narmandakh (Mongolia), 7-0, 7-0, before coming back to pound Diletta Gianpiccolo (Italy) 7-0, 2-0 in the final two periods after her Italian foe took the first period 3-0.
That put Roberts into a semifinal match just 15 minutes later against Hungarian Mariann Sastin, who held on to beat Roberts, 7-4, 7-6. Roberts actually led the first period, 4-0, on a pair of gutwrenches before Sastin scored seven points over a 1:05 stretch, which included a three-point double leg takedown that gave Sastin a 5-4 lead with 19 seconds left.
Then in the second period, Sastin jumped on top 7-1 before Roberts scored five unanswered points on a pair of gut wrenches in the final 19 seconds of the second period.
Roberts, a bronze medalist at the 2003 Worlds, had to settle for third place after she defeated Anna Zwirydowska of Poland, 7-0, 6-2.
“I am the eternal bronze medalist, darn it,” Roberts said. “Against Hungary, I had no idea what the score was. I tried to get as many points as I could, but sometimes they gave it to her. I knew I was wrestling against a Hungarian in Hungary. I had to make it more clean.”
63K/138 pounds
Japan’s Kaori Icho has been a thorn in the side of Sara McMann (Iowa City, Iowa/Sunkist Kids) the past three years as Icho had defeated McMann in the gold medal matches at both the 2003 World Championships in New York and at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
The tournament bracket didn’t waste any time bringing these Olympians together in the first round and once again McMann was on the short end of a 3-2, 2-1 loss to the Japanese wrestler.
In the first period, Icho used a three-point double-leg takedown in the first 22 seconds, then held off McMann, who added a single and a pushout against Icho. In the second period, McMann used a high crotch to lead 1-0 just 20 seconds into the period. Unfortunately for McMann, her rival scored a pair of takedowns with the final point coming as Icho fought off a valiant takedown attempt by McMann with six seconds left.
Making this loss even tougher was the fact that McMann had spent the past year trying to overcome the death of her boyfriend, Steven Blackford, in an auto accident shortly after the Olympics.
“It is a quote from someone else, but it is my favorite,” McMann said. “Winning does not develop our strength. Our struggles develop our strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.’ ”
With Icho winning eventually winning another world title, it allowed McMann to compete in the consolation bracket. Once there, she first rallied from a 5-2 first period loss to defeat Sweden’s Helena Allandi, 4-2, 2-2 (with the final point coming with 11 seconds left). That put her in the bronze medal match against Anna Polovneva of Russia, who took a 2-1 first period victory before McMann won the final two periods, 2-1 and 4-2. The key points in the bronze medal match came on a three-point hip toss with 41 seconds gone in the final period.
67K/147.5 pounds
Katie Downing (Colorado Springs, Colo./Sunkist Kids) wasted no time proving she deserved to be competing at the World Championships.
After playing second fiddle to USA teammate Kristie Marano (a two-time world gold medalist) for the past decade, Downing spent less than three minutes in pinning her first two opponents: Manuela Barzu of Romania (1:03) and Stauvoula Zygouri of Greece (1:39).
That put the 25-year-old native of Indianapolis in the quarterfinals against Canada’s Martine Dugrenier, who used a pair of takedowns to defeat Downing 1-0, 1-0.
“(Dugrenier) is just strong,” Downing said. “It’s not pretty technique, very simple. But it works. I have to never let it get there. She can’t score singles on me if I am in on her leg. I’ll figure it out next year.”
Though disappointed in the loss, Downing was able to continue wrestling when Dugrenier reached the finals (where she lost to China’s Lili Meng). After defeating Eri Sakamoto of Japan 0-2, 1-0, 3-1 in a consolation match, Downing had no troubling blanking Great Britain’s Ashlea McManus, 6-0, 7-0 for the bronze medal.
“This is the beginning of my dream,” Downing said. “This is the first time I’m here. I have imagined for so long what it would feel like. When I got to feel it for real, it was a neat experience.”
72K/158.5 pounds
Before Iris Smith (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Army) reached her gold medal match with Hamaguchi, she had to win three other matches and one of her tougher matches was her first, when she defeated Stanka Zlateva of Bulgaria, 3-1, 1-0. In that match, Zlateva took a 1-0 lead ten seconds into the match before Smith rallied to score three takedowns in the first and another in the second (with 18 seconds left).
Smith then eliminated Agnieszka Wieszczek of Poland, 2-0, 6-0, in a quarterfinal match before rallying from a 1-0 deficit in the first period to defeat Anita Schaetzle of Germany, 3-1, 2-0. A pair of double leg takedowns helped Smith win the first period.
In the end, national women’s coach Terry Steiner was impressed that none of his wrestlers quit when they were behind or if they lost early-round matches.
“As a team, we had matches that showed character. Sara McMann, Katie Downing and Sally Roberts showed great character. They had an opportunity to wrestle back after their losses and they did it. They fought through it. We have two teams ahead of us who are not slowing down. We need to move forward however. But this is a great place to start going forward to 2008.”
(The Mat.com assisted with quotes and notes on this story.)
(You can read this and other articles by subscribing to W.I.N. Magazine. Either contact our office at 1-888-305-0606 or subscribe through this website by selecting the “Subscribe” section on our front page.)
-----------------------------------------------
Haryana grapplers strike gold in SA
Sunit Dhawan & A. Gulati
Hisar, INDIA, July 11
Wrestler Geetika Jakhar with her parents in Hisar, INDIA |
Promising wrestler Geetika Jakhar has done the city proud by winning a gold medal in the 63-kg category and the Best Wrestler Award in the recently concluded Commonwealth Championship at Cape Town in South Africa.
Geetika, 19, was part of the 21-member Indian team which participated in the event. The championship was organised from June 29 to July 2.
Soon after the event, Geetika went to Lithuania to participate in the World Junior Wrestling Championship, which was organised from July 5 to 10. She won a Silver medal in the same weight (63 kg) category there.
On returning home, a beaming Geetika attributed her success to her parents, Mr Satyavir and Ms Usha Rani, and her grandfather, who had inspired her to join the sport.
Geetika had now set her eyes on the Senior World Women Wrestling Championship, to be held in Budapest in September this year. Her ultimate dream is an Olympic gold.
The wrestler was critical of the government’s sports policy. She felt that a few disciplines were being given excessive funding and undue credit at the cost of others.
---------------------------------