Junior wrestlers off to Sydney event

Press, 19 July 1989, Page 31

Junior wrestlers off to Sydney event

PA Wellington New Zealand wrestling will take one of its first steps towards competing in the 1994 Commonwealth Games when a junior squad heads for an international tournament in Sydney in September. "This will be the start to formulating our challenge for Victoria,” the chairman of selectors, Andrew Roche, said yesterday. “We want to make sure that, when the 1994 Games come around, we have a strong pool of wrestlers.” Wrestling, omitted from the Commonwealth Games in Auckland in January, will be a competition sport in Victoria, Canada. The Sydney event — the first South Pacific Espoir Tournament — will also involve Australia, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Taiwan,, and maybe Canada. New Zealand will have two

teams, an A and a B lineup, both chosen after the national championships in New Plymouth last week-end. According to the Espoir tournament’s rules, each team has one wrestler in a particular weight category and the teams face each other on a round-robin basis. Mr Roche said the format was ideal for giving wrestlers experience, as they would continue to have bouts no matter how many times they lost. “In something like the world championships, you get eliminated after two losses, and if that happens in your first two bouts, then you’ve spent a lot of money for very little competition.” He said Japan and South Korea would provide the toughest opposition, with the strength of the Americans depending on the team they decided to send.

“The Japanese and the Koreans are always difficult,” he said. “But the Amereican No. 1 team could be somewhere else in the world.” New Zealand teams.— A: Ross Tanner (Bay of Plenty) 48kg; Leonard Church (Auckland) 52kg; Peter Lovett (Wairarapa) 57kg; Dean Sundborn (Waikato) 62kg; Brett Quinlan (Waikato) 68kg; John Shepherd (Auckland) 74kg; Craig Jones (Canterbury) 82kg. B: Ross Page (Wellington) 48kg; Marcus Coates (Taranaki) 52kg; Lance Cheeseman (Wairarapa) 1 57kg; Aaron Quinlan (Waikato) 62kg; Alistair Clifford (Auckland) 68kg; Dean Bell (Central Districts) 74kg; Nicholas Lane (Waikato) 82kg. Coach: John Wilson (New Plymouth).