News
Page
• Sunday, Oct 28,
2007
At least seven states have arrived in Bauchi for the maiden Governor Isa
Yuguda amateur wrestling Championship which began on Thursday, the LOC has said.
No fewer than 700 wrestlers from the 19 states in the Northern zone are
expected to participate in the event.
Alhaji Lawal Garba, Secretary of the Local Organising Committee, told
Tidesports’ source in Bauchi that contingents from 12 other states were being
expected.
He said adequate accommodation and medical services had been provided in
readiness for the zonal championship.
The championship being staged in the male and female categories, will see the
male contesting from 30kg to 125kg while the female will slug it out from 30kg
to 72kg.
By SUSAN OLP
Of The Gazette Staff 10/28/07
All eyes were on
the mat as the two wrestlers faced each other, crouched and ready to
pounce.
Each had as a goal to take down the other competitor and complete
the pin as quickly as possible.
The desire and determination of these
grapplers to win was etched in the expression of their faces - even when the
competitors weighed only 54 pounds. Like 7-year-old Jaida Lankford.
Blond
with big baby-blue eyes, Jaida, a second-grader at Hardin Primary, dominated her
opponent, winning her first match of the day 16-1.
Jaida was one of 28 girls, ages 6 to 16, to compete in the
U.S. Girls Wrestling Association Fall Classic tourney at Lockwood School. About
60 people came out to cheer on the wrestlers, who traveled from as far as Wolf
Point and Butte.
The girls were paired for their matches by age and
weight. They were expected to take part in four matches, in some cases against
the same opponent each time, throughout the day.
Saturday's meet was the
second USGWA event in the Billings area this year. In April, a meet at Lockwood
School drew 41 competitors, and Jaida took part in that.
"She was so
excited about it last time that we decided to bring her back," said her mom,
Vicki Lankford, who watched the match from the edge of the mat, cheering on her
daughter.
Jaida is no novice to the sport of wrestling. She's been part
of a boys and girls AAU wrestling club in Hardin for two years, one of only two
girls.
The club starts up in February and goes for three
months.
"She has no problem wrestling boys," her mother, Vicki Lankford,
said.
The other nine months of the year, Jaida studies a form of tae kwon
do. She recently earned her green-striped belt.
Asked how she got into
wrestling at age 5, Jaida credits her brother, who is two years
older.
"My brother was in wrestling," she said. "He was really nice and I
was really mean."
'Kind of a fluke'
Brother Cameron decided
wrestling wasn't for him, but Jaida stayed with it. Vicki Lankford said she was
a bit surprised when her daughter got into the sport, given that neither she nor
her husband ever took part in the sport.
"This is kind of a fluke that we
have a wrestler in the family," she said.
When Jaida isn't wrestling or
engaged in martial arts, she enjoys playing soccer, riding her bike and going
fishing.
Vicki Lankford said she's fine with having a daughter who
wrestles.
"As long as she's happy and having fun," Lankford said. "But as
soon as she quits having fun, we'll take her out."
Bob Charette,
president of the local Stars-N-Stripes Wrestling Club, helped organize
Saturday's event. He is also Montana chairman of the USGWA. Charette has been
involved with wrestling for 28 years, including taken kids from across the
continent to places such as Russia and Europe to compete.
"I've always
involved girls in wrestling, because when I travel abroad, it's not uncommon to
see girls in wrestling and martial arts elsewhere," he said.
He also
wants to see girls get involved in wrestling to imbue them with self-confidence
and teach them self-defense. It might protect them from child abuse or domestic
violence, he said.
"I know I can teach these girls to stand up and be
strong and not be victims," Charette said.
Also at Saturday's meet was
Kent Bailo of Michigan, founder and president of the USGWA. When he started the
organization in 1998, people would ask him if the girls would be wrestling in
mud or Jell-O.
But that mentality is starting to change.
"I
haven't heard that question for the past five years," he said.
One of
Bailo's goals is to see girls varsity wrestling be a state-sanctioned high
school sport in all 50 states. So far Hawaii and Texas have girls varsity
squads, he said, and the state of Washington just came on board in
2007.
In 2006, 125 girls wrestled in Washington, he said. When it became
a sanctioned sport, that number tripled to 375 girls.
"In the past I've
had state school associations say there's not enough interest for it," Bailo
said. "I say try it."
He compares the attitude about girls wrestling to
the status soccer once had.
"I graduated in 1968, and when I was in high
school, everyone thought soccer was a wimpy sport," he said. "Now look at
it."
Women's wrestling debuted at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Three out of four members of the United States team came out of Bailo's
organization.
"We're trying to provide opportunities no one else has,"
Bailo said.
That's just fine with Heather Glenn. The 13-year-old
eighth-grader from Columbus just started wrestling two weeks ago, after she
joined a wrestling club coached by Amy Hall, whose daughter, Kelsey, is a
wrestler and Heather's best friend.
On Saturday, she won her first match
16-1. Asked if she had fun, she didn't hesitate.
"Yeah, I love it,"
Heather said.
Craig Sesker USA
Wrestling
10/27/2007
CHANDLER, Ariz. – Sara
McMann’s approach to the Sunkist Kids International Open was simple.
Have
fun and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
The formula worked to
perfection.
McMann, coming off a bronze-medal performance last month at
the World Championships, continued to look very strong as she dominated the
women’s freestyle field at 63 kg/138.75 lbs. in rolling to the Sunkist Kids
title Saturday at the Rawhide Arena.
McMann (Gaffney, S.C./Sunkist Kids),
a 2004 Olympic silver medalist, overpowered Junior World champion and World
fifth-place finisher Anna Polovneva of Russia 3-0, 3-0 in the
finals.
“She’s definitely a tough wrestler,” McMann said. “She has two
really good power moves with a fireman’s and a double - if you can keep your
head low and keep your arm back you can keep her from hitting those
moves.”
Also winning women’s freestyle titles on Saturday were Clarissa
Chun of the Sunkist Kids at 48 kg/105.5 lbs., Mary Kelly of the New York AC at
51 kg/112.25 lbs., Tonya Verbeek of Canada at 55 kg/121 lbs., Anastasia
Bratchikova of Russia at 59 kg/130 lbs., Katie Downing of the Sunkist Kids at 67
kg/147.5 lbs. and Iris Smith of the U.S. Army at 72 kg/158.5 lbs.
Canada
won the women’s team title with 34 points with the Sunkist Kids second with 28
points and Russia third with 24.
Smith, a 2005 World champion, beat
Russia’s Daria Nazarova 2-0, 2-1 in the finals. Smith downed 2004 Olympic silver
medalist and 2007 World bronze medalist Guzel Manyurova of Russia 3-0, 1-2, 1-1
in the semifinals.
Smith was named Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament
in women’s freestyle after beating Russia’s top two wrestlers at 72
kilos.
McMann outscored her four opponents Saturday by a 36-1 score. She
beat Randi Miller 3-0, 2-1 in the first round before shutting out her last three
foes. Miller came back to place third.
“I have so many tournaments where
I have immense amounts of pressure on me,” McMann said. “I need to take
tournaments like this and try to have fun and enjoy myself. And then when it’s
time to wrestle just go out there and do the things I’ve been working on. I’m
trying to get better and this is just practice for the Big
Show.”
FINAL-ROUND RESULTS
48 kg/105.5 lbs. – Clarissa Chun
(Sunkist Kids) dec. Sara Fulp-Allen (New York AC) 2-0, 2-1
51 kg/112.25
lbs. – Mary Kelly (New York AC) dec. LeeAnn Barney (Oklahoma City University)
2-0, 5-1
55 kg/121 lbs. – Tonya Verbeek (Canada) dec. Brittanee Laverdure
(Canada) 5-0, 4-0
59 kg/130 lbs. – Anastasia Bratchikova (Russia) dec.
Sally Roberts 0-1, 3-0, 1-0
63 kg/138.75 lbs. – Sara McMann (Sunkist
Kids) dec. Anna Polovneva (Russia) 3-0, 3-0
67 kg/147.5 lbs. – Katie
Downing (Sunkist Kids) dec. Elena Pirozhkova (Gator WC) 6-0, 1-0
72
kg/158.5 lbs. - Iris Smith (U.S. Army) dec. Daria Nazarova (Russia) 2-0,
2-1
Kristie Marano, fresh off winning her
record-tying ninth World Championships medal, was helping out as a coach on
Saturday.
Marano, who competes for the New York Athletic Club, won a
silver medal in women’s freestyle at the 2007 World Championships on Sept. 23 in
Baku, Azerbaijan.
She now begins training for her next goal – a spot on
the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team.
Foreign flavor present at
Sunkist
There is plenty of foreign flavor featured at the Sunkist
event.
Wrestlers are here from Japan, Russia, India, Canada, Mexico,
Mongolia and El Salvador.
There were nine wrestlers from Japan competing
in Greco-Roman on Saturday.
Russia had seven women competing Saturday,
including Olympic silver medalist Guzel Manyurova at 72 kg/158.5 lbs. Manyurova
placed third at the 2007 Worlds after falling to Marano in the
semifinals.
Oklahoma City University women hit the mats
The
new women’s program at Oklahoma City University was well-represented Saturday
with 20 wrestlers competing.
Seven of the 21 wrestlers at 48 kg/105.5
lbs. were from Oklahoma City.
