Hold oh smiles at wrestling

Press, 14 September 1988, Page 50

Hold oh smiles at wrestling

PA Seoul The world of musclebound wrestlers breeds its own paranoia. - • Competitors training for Olympic wrestling competition have declared Sangmu Stadium out of bounds to spectators. Amidst it all the New Zealand wrestlers, Steven Reinsfield (62kg class) and Brent Hollamby (57kg), could be forgiven for believing nobody loves them. Last week the keen bantamweights decided to visit the competition stadium twice a day for training instead of the one official session. When Olympic commit-

tee officials heard of the double training effort the New Zealand team’s assistant manager, Graeme McCabe, was on the mat. Removal of all training rights was threatened by Korean officials with the result that the Auckland builder Reinsfield and the Otago rugby enthusiast Hollamby are now training once a day. The New Zealand wrestling manager, Katikati panel beater Andrew Roche, was puzzled. ? ? “We were, the only ones in the gym at the time for goodness’ sake,” he said. < Undaunted and keen to promote his sport, Mr

Roche invited New Zealand media to view the daily workout yesterday. Seoul’s smile campaign reverted to the more realistic surly approach when they were stopped at the door.. - ‘ . Mr Roche ...explained, later the Russians (who expect to dominate the 20-event competition), United States, Bulgarian and Iranian wrestlers were “all paranoid” of each other. “They’re dead- scared their latest holds will be filmed.” ; ; , Mr Roche will be happy if the two New Zealand wrestlers caught up in their sweaty world of anonymity should

among the top 12. Reinsfield will contest his division against 30 wrestlers. Mr Roche fancies the United States Open titleholder, John Smith, in this division. As for Hollamby, the man to beat in the 57kg division with 24 competitors is the 32-year-old Russian Serguei Berloglazov. Since 1982 radio engineer Berloglazov has won four world and four European championship titles; Also fancied is Barry Davis, of the United States, whose wife, Nan Doak, ran in the world 'cross-country championships in Auckland last year,