Day 7 at the Commonwealth Games in India, and in the hope of continuing the success so far for British wrestlers, today’s action saw a Bulldog Spirit from team England, Scotland and Wales.
more to be updates soon…
Wrestling at the Commonwealth Games in India is proving a success for England as Leon Rattigan and Sahsa both get a bronze medal in the 96kg and 60kg category’s.
After the success of Greco-Roman wrestlers days earlier, today it was the turn of the freestyle wrestlers to shine.
Leon who is from Bristol, England and now trains in Manchester; has in recent years started to perform well since he started wrestling at senior Level. All his hard work has seemed to pay off as he can now look forward to training for the London 2012 Olympics with a great boost of having a medal at the commonwealths, a competition that will give him a taster of what a world stage like the Olympics feels like.
Both Leon and Sasha should be delighted with what is a success during what has been a commonwelath games tainted with contreveral.
more to follow soon!….
During the 3rd day of the commonwealth games in India and England’s wrestling team have started magnificatnly as Myroslav Dykun won a Gold Medal in the 66 kilogram category. This medal for England comes just a day after team mate Terrrance Bosson won a silver medal in the 60kilogram divison.
Both Terrance and Myroslav have provided Team England and British wrestling as a whole a great boost as thier fellow team-mates will undougbtly seek to emulate their performance later in the competition.
Myrolav, aged 27 and orginally from Ukraine has been living in Manchester for the past seven years now and regulary trains with his team mates, where he usually wrestles Freestyle. He actually started competing as a young boy in Ukraine, where he was coached by some of the best in the world. In the lead up to the comonwealth games he attended a hard-core trainning camp in Russia to prepare for the greco-roman style.
It is remarkable to think that this gold medal was won in his first major world stage competion in the greco-roman style, where in all his macthes he showed that he can easily transfer form freestyle. In fact it actually seemed like he was more comfortable wrestling greco style as he pinned all his opponent and ended the final after just 40 secounds. In other words, he made it look easy!
England team manager Shaun Morley said “We know he is a world-class athlete and he performed above and beyond expectations today.”
During his early Matches, Myroslav silenced the home crowd by beating Indian medal hope Sunil Kumar 5-0 at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex. He then went onto beat Australias before reachoing the final against candas jack bond.
Myroslav is no stranger to world class performance, as he as previously gained top results in competions in both canada, baku and in russia. He is an experinced wrestler, and when he is on form, he has leathful execution of his techniques, combining his strength together with precision timing.
With now a gold at these games on his CV, his career can conitue with remarkably a chocie of conitnung in either greco-style or his more nautural freeestyle. However it seems more likely that he will remain in freestyle. One thing is certain is that if he continues his current form, he looks set to carry on winning in either style.
Terrance Bosson wins silver in the 60kg category for Team England
It was Terrance Bosson’s silver medal for England, which provided the spark for the high spirits currently amongst his team mate sstill waiitng to compete in both the freestyle and female wrestling. Some of them have even stated that the medals are “business as usual” on their social netowking profiles, proving a sence of the optimism and comoraderie amingst team england.
Terrance who is based in Newcaste, England recorded victories over Pakistan’s Sarmad Araq and South African Marious Loots. He lost in the final to India’s Ravinder Singh.
Both Greco-Roman Medals are a great start for team england as the media are gradually becoming more aware of wrestling during these games in India. The female wrestling and mens freeestyle will start at the wekend, and with potentiol medlas still to come, these games are proving fasinating viwing before the London 2012 olympics games.
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Wrestling may not be England’s national sport; however it does have its own tradition across the country. With the new generation of British wrestlers currently attending this year’s Commonwealth Games in India, they can return home as role models and an inspiration for today’s youth.
(Joanna and Shasha Madyarchyk, married couple who are both wrestling for Team England in this Years Commonwealth Game s in India.)
Wrestling is one of many sports being held at this year’s commonwealth games; also it is one of the oldest sports in the world and has been a part of the Olympics since the Ancient Games in Greece. There are two main styles, Greco-Roman and Freestyle. The main difference between the two is that in Greco-Roman you are forbidden to attack your opponent below the waist, where as Freetyle wrestlers are allowed to attack the whole body.
Dicipline, hard-work, determination, respect for your elders and continuing self-improvement are all key elements of being a good wrestler, not forgetting all the training that is needed to compete at the highest level. Traditionally around the world good wrestlers train hard not only to be a champion in the wrestling arena, but also to be a champion outside of the sport, within their local community, amongst friends and with family.
Britian actually has its own history in the sport and developed the style of “catch as catch can” in northern England, with the famous Aspull wrestling club and Bolton wrestling club being a home for many succesful wrestlers. Today there are a number of small clubs around the country, with many of them attracting a large number of young children. However only the dedicated and strong willed seem to remain in the sport as they get older.
Manchester, North of England is home to the British Wrestling Academy, where the national team train to prepare for competition, both at domestic and international level. Wrestlers have to maintain the flexibility of a gymnast, strength of a weightlifter and use the tactics of a chess player. The national team attend regular training camps, with many of the British squad recently visiting Russia to train with some of the best in the world.
For many years it was the entertainment form of the sport, such as televised wrestling popular in the United States that dominated public awarness in Britain, with the word wrestling being associated with show or a fake sport for entertainment purposes.
However in recent years with the growing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts and the build up to the London 2012 Olympics, there has been gradually more awarness of the true natural sport of wrestling. The BBC have also recently started to do more coverage on the sport and featured news on both the GB Cup in Sheffiled and now the Commonwealth Games in India. Although the mainstream media is still very shallow in its analysis and understanding of wrestling.
Wrestlers when they are not competing, have the opportunity to coach in their local community and be a sort of mentor, using sport as a way of keeping children out of trouble.
Furthermore, if we are to still teach school children history and stories of heros and quest’s for glory, why not provide them also with the chance to learn wrestling, and get a practical lesson in a sport which brings with it its own history, culture and more importantly can offer our young real role models to follow.
Most of us who are following British Wrestling or sport in general would of seen the recent news on the state of this year’s commonwealth games in India. With venue-infrastructure problems and overall organizational management of the event being poor, and a public-relations disaster for India, no one is yet certain how well the games will start if they do continue, as teams today confirmed their attendance.
However with all this negativity surrounding India’s management of this great sporting event, alongside the huge drop out of elite athletes, not too mention some of India’s own wrestlers not taking part, British Wrestling now potentially has a great opportunity to shine and come home with a greater profile and public awareness in the British public.
No matter the problems with venue, and the athletes village, British wrestlers should be now relaxed and stay focused on what they need to achieve. Because with all the negative media surrounding the games at the moment, one good thing that may come out of it is for all the British Wrestlers to do well and shine through, and provide the British media with some positive news to focus on.
In the past games have continued during times of international crisis and challenging events, but athletes have their place on the sporting field and should be free to carry out their task un-restricted and achieve what years of hard work has lead them too, a chance to claim glory for themselves, their family and make the country as a whole proud behind them.
Each of the British wrestlers who are attending this year’s games, if they do well, they can be an inspiration to school children across the country and be a catalyst for the future development of wrestling in Britain.
Herculean Sport 