www.miningjournal.net 5/27/06

MARQUETTE — U.S. Olympic Education Center officials Friday named the center’s standout athletes for the winter 2006 semester:

= Sharon Jacobson (El Cajon, Calif.) — She’s USA Wrestling’s female freestyle athlete of the semester, earning the honor for the second time in the last year.

In February, Jacobson won bronze in the 55-kilogram division at the Dave Schultz International tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo. The following month, she grabbed silver at the Alexander Medved International tournament in Minsk, Belarus.

Jacobson wrapped up her season with a gold medal at the U.S. National Championships last month in Las Vegas, where she was named the competition’s outstanding wrestler.

She’s in her second year at the USOEC.

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Akuffo wears out welcome

Bill Doucet, Cambridge 5/25/06

The Japanese may never invite Ohenewa Akuffo to "their house" again.

The 27-year-old University of Guelph wrestler - who works at Home Depot in Cambridge under the Olympic Job Opportunities Program - took her first step to being a presence on the world stage on the weekend in the land of the rising sun.

At the World Cup in Nagoya, Japan - which featured a team event where all weight classes wrestled against another country in a best-of-seven format, while still having each wrestler's wins count towards individual honours - Akuffo upset the host country's five-time world champion Kyoko Hamaguchi for the women's 72-kilogram title.

Canada came in second overall, with Akuffo getting the only win for her country in the final.

It was a staggering win for Akuffo, who beat Russia's Alena Starodubtseva in the first round, before disposing of China's Xiao Li in the second round. But the five-time senior national champion really felt the pressure in the final, as Canada's last hope to get some points against Japan. And let's not forget that the final was being taped for Japanese TV and the pro-Hamaguchi crowd got louder with every win by the host country.

"I knew that if she got the first point off me the crowd would go crazy," Akuffo said of her final match, which she won 1-0, 2-1.

"So I was nervous before the match, but I started looking at her and thinking that all the pressure was really on her. I wanted to do something for Canada and make a statement that she was going to have to work to beat me. I came in with the attitude that she wasn't going to whip my behind, so I started off aggressive. I know that she likes to start that way too, and when I did it, I think I caught her off guard and stole a point in the first round. I think she lost her focus being behind.

"When I won the first round, I knew I had the edge. She tried a shoot in to start the second round and I reversed it and got two points right away. She stayed aggressive, but didn't score a point until the last 10 seconds and by then it was too late."

Besides giving her confidence for the world championships in Guangzhou, China, Akuffo also got a sneak peek of some of her main competitors. She also had the chance to preview the Chinese style first hand, which differs from the North American wrestling style.

"It's really unique and you won't see it anywhere else," she said.

"They like to grab the fingers a lot. And the Chinese really don't go to a lot of outside tournaments and we aren't in the Asian championships, so we don't get to see them very often. So this was a good chance to face that style and learn what I have to do to be successful."

Akuffo's win also punctuated her excitement when the freestyle wrestling rules were altered after the Olympics - which tends to be the norm in the sport. Changing to two-minute rounds in a best-of-three format was basically playing into her hands, as Akuffo admits that she likes to be aggressive and come out strong at the start of bouts.

"When I saw the change I was thinking, 'how can you make life any better?' I like to be offensive and shoot in when I can, when before, you really couldn't do that a lot. You had to try and get a lead without making a big mistake, and then hang on and try to hold it. This is better suited to my style, but you can still see that some countries are still dealing with the issue," she said.

Despite the World Cup win, Akuffo is not adjusting the goals she set for herself at the start of the wrestling season - a top-five finish at the worlds. She felt that changing her outlook would put undue pressure on herself.

"I don't think there's any reason to do that. That way, if I have a great finish, then there's no reason to complain," Akuffo said.

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