Tiffany Williams/Ponoka News
Kati-Ann Kirchner recently won gold at the Western Games
News Page
Ponoka youth wins gold, sets eyes on the Olympics
By Tiffany Williams
Staff Reporter 8/22/07
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Tiffany Williams/Ponoka News Kati-Ann Kirchner recently won gold at the Western Games |
Kati-Ann Kirchner brought home a gold medal in wrestling from the 2007 Western Canada Summer Games. She thought overall the games were very good and was very happy with her accomplishment.
"It was a really good experience [standing on the podium after winning gold], everyone was looking up at me. A lot of people try their hardest to get to that spot and once you succeed it's just a really good experience after you reached your goal."
She competed in four different matches winning each one. The games were held from Aug. 3 to 11 in Strathcona. There were over 2,300 athletes, coaches, officials and performers at the games from the four western provinces and three territories. Before the match she was staying positive.
"I was thinking it wasn't going to be taken from me, I was going to win," Kirchner said.
The gold medal match was on Aug. 11; she said that her opponent was strong and that it was a slow start but soon picked up.
"It felt great winning. I was the only girl to finish the gold medal rounds in the first round. I pinned her and finished her in the first round," she said.
She said that her toughest match was against team Saskatchewan; she said that the other girl wouldn't let her get behind her.
"I hesitated at first but I threw her. I did it, that's how I got my points"
Kirchner is 15 years old and is entering into grade 11 at Ponoka Composite High School she has been wrestling for six years after watching her older brother wrestle. She has trained all summer long five days a week, which included conditioning, stretching and working on the mat. She also attended three different training camps with other members from Team Alberta over the summer.
Even though PCHS will not have a wrestling team this year Kirchner will be training at the University of Alberta two times a week or more in hopes of achieving her ultimate goal of participating at the 2012 Olympics in London England.
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NEWS FLASH: Conder wins gold, Padilla takes silver at Junior Worlds in China
Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
08/23/2007
Whitney Conder (Payallup, Wash./USOEC) claimed a gold medal at 51 kg/112.25 lbs. and Tatiana Padilla (LaVerne, Calif./California Grapplers) captured a silver medal at 59 kg/130 lbs. at the Junior World Championships on Thursday night.
Conder defeated Kumari Babita of India, 2-1, 3-2 in the finals. Conder scored two takedowns in the first period. In the second period, the difference for Conder was a takedown with exposure points.
Li Songni China edged Padilla, 1-0, 2-0 in their finals bout. Li scored the only takedown of the first period. In the second period, Padilla stepped out of bounds two times, giving Li her two points for the win.
Amy Whitbeck (Duanesburg, N.Y./Team New York) placed fifth at 44 kg/97 lbs. losing to Kumari Sudesh of India in the bronze medal match.
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Conder and Padilla qualify for Junior World women's finals
Gary Abbott USA Wrestling
08/22/2007
BEIJING, CHINA - Two U.S. women, Whitney Conder (Payallup, Wash./USOEC) at 51 kg/112.25 lbs. and Tatiana Padilla, LaVerne, Calif. (California Grapplers) at 59 kg/130 lbs. have qualified for the gold medal match at the Junior World Championships on Thursday.
The United States had a very strong opening session, winning nine matches and losing only two.
Padilla won three matches to qualify for the finals, where she will face Lin Songni of China.
Her biggest win came in the quarterfinals, where she pinned 2006 Junior World champion Larisa Kanaeva of Russia in the second period, 1-0, 1:52. Padilla won the first period, 1-0. In the second period, Kanaeva was leading 3-0, when the athletes got into a scramble on the mat. Padilla stepped over a Kaneava move, and pinned Kanaeva at the 1:52 mark of the second period.
In the opening round, Padilla stopped Sona Ahmadi of Azerbaijan, 4-3, 2-0. After beating Kanaeva, Padilla was able to advance to the finals by stopping K. Dombrovska of Ukraine, 0-6, 2-0, 4-0. Dombroska dominated the first period with a technical fall, but Padilla bounced back and took over the match in the final two periods.
Padilla was the 2007 TheMat.com/ASICS High School Girls Wrestler of the Year in the United States. She has won three ASICS Junior Nationals title, and enters her senior year of high school in the fall.
Conder, who is a member of the U.S. Olympic Education Program women’s team at Northern Michigan Univ., also had three victories on the way to the finals. Conder defeated Li Xiao of China in the semifinals, 1-0, 3-2, the only match that China lost in the session. Conder will face Kumari Babita of India in the gold-medal match on Thursday night.
She opened with a victory over Osocka Dominika Poland, 4-1, 6-1, then won her second match by a pin in the second period over Maryna Milevskaya of Belarus, 3-1, 1:58.
Amy Whitbeck (Duanesburg, N.Y./Team New York) advanced to the semifinals at 44 kg/97 lbs., where she was defeated by Elena Gnatenko of Russia, 0-4, 1-7. Whitbeck will compete in a bronze-medal match on Thursday night, against an opponent to be determined from the wrestleback rounds.
Her session included wins over Huang Chen-Yu of Taipei, 5-0. 6-0 and Rehina Yarova of Ukraine, 4-0, 2-0.
The only U.S. wrestler to be eliminated from medal contention was Erin Clodgo (Richmond, Vermont/USOEC) at 67 kg/147.5 lbs.
Clodgo defeated Desire Smith of South Africa, 1-0, 4-0 in her first match. In the quarterfinals, she was pinned by Laura Skujina of Latvia in 1:49. When Skujina was defeated in the semifinals, Clodgo was not eligible for the wrestleback rounds. Only athletes who lose to a finalist are entered in the wrestlebacks for the bronze medals.
China placed three athletes in the finals, losing only one bout in the session. In a shocking development, traditional power Japan, which was second at the 2006 Junior World Championships, lost all four of their matches in the session.
Junior World Championships
At Beijing, China, August 23
U.S. performances in the first session
44 kg/97 lbs. – Amy Whitbeck, Duanesburg, N.Y. (Team New York)
WIN Huang Chen-Yu (Taipei), 5-0. 6-0
WIN Rehina Yarova (Ukraine), 4-0, 2-0
LOSS Elena Gnatenko (Russia), 0-4, 1-7
51 kg/112.25 lbs. – Whitney Conder, Payallup, Wash. (USOEC)
WIN Osocka Dominika (Poland), 4-1, 6-1
WIN Maryna Milevskaya (Belarus), pin 3-1, 1:58
WIN Li Xiao (China), 1-0, 3-2
59 kg/130 lbs. – Tatiana Padilla, LaVerne, Calif. (California Grapplers)
WIN Sona Ahmadi (Azerbaijan), 4-3, 2-0
WIN Larisa Kanaeva (Russia), pin 1-0, 1:52
WIN K. Dombrovska (Ukraine), 0-6, 2-0, 4-0
67 kg/147.5 lbs. – Erin Clodgo, Richmond, Vermont (USOEC)
WIN Desire Smith (South Africa), 1-0, 4-0
LOSS Laura Skujina (Latvia), pin 1:49
Mustang wrestler heads to Junior Worlds Championships
LondonTopic.ca
08/22/2007
Jennifer Nguyen takes her best shot at a Junior Women's World Wrestling Championship Friday (Aug. 24), in Beijing, China. |
London-Western Wrestling Club member and University of Western Ontario wrestler Jennifer Nguyen takes her best shot at a Junior Women's World Wrestling Championship Friday (Aug. 24), in Beijing, China.
Nguyen, a third-year Health Sciences student, has had a busy summer leading up to the world-championship competition. She was named to Canada's junior national team in March by virtue of her gold medal performance at the Junior National Championships in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and has competed in two international events and as many national training camps over the last four months.
Nguyen placed fifth in the 55 kg division at the Commonwealth Championships on June 16 in London. She then placed 6th at the Canada Cup in Guelph, Ont., just a week later, and followed up with a week-long national training camp.
The London wrestler recently returned from Prague with the national team at a European five-country training camp from July 15-30. Leading up to the Junior Worlds, Nguyen has been training with the London-Western Wrestling Club coached by Ray Takahashi, who was selected as assistant coach to the national junior women's team and will travel with Nguyen.
"Competing at the worlds will be a great experience for Jenn," said Takahashi, who left for China last week. "It's also a great opportunity for me to work with the national program, but it's extra special for me to be there with Jenn as her personal coach."
"It's my last year as a junior (under 20 years) so I would like to do well," said Nguyen.
The junior world championships will be held at the Olympic site for wrestling in 2008. Both Takahashi and Nguyen will travel to Japan following the championships for four days.
"I thought it would be a great opportunity for Jenn to see Japan and experience the Japanese wrestling system which is ranked number one in the world," said Takahashi, who trained in Japan in 1983 and has maintained a friendship with Yasumitsu Toba, now of the Japanese Wrestling Federation, who will host Nguyen and Takahashi during their stay in Japan.
Nguyen's preparation has been going well having top training partners at London-Western such as former Western star and CIS champion, Terri McNutt, and senior national team member, Katie Patroch who won gold at the Pan-Am Wrestling Championships in El Salvador on May 19.
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Wrestlers win gold at Westerns
By Rick Kupchuk
Aug 22 2007
Led by five gold medals from the wrestling team, local athletes returned from the Western Canada Games in Strathmore, Alberta with 13 gold medals.
Surrey/North Delta competitors won a total of 35 medals at the Aug. 3-11 competition, six of which were won by members of the Guildford Park high school wrestling squad.
Gina Carpenter, O.C. Safar and Satinder Virk won gold medals in individual competition.
Carpenter was one of only two B.C. girls to go undefeated in the entire tournament, winning the 56 kg. competition and helping the girls’ team win the silver medal in the team standings.
Safar in the 50 kg. class and Virk at 85 kg. were part of a dominant performance by the B.C. boys’ team, which won gold medals in nine of 11 weight classes, as well as the team title.
Jagraj Basra of Enver Creek also won gold, wrestling in the 58 kg. class.
Isaac Bernard, who will wrestle as a Grade 8 for Guildford Park this coming season, was undefeated through the team competition, and didn’t lose a match in the individual event until the final. Bernard lost to Quinn Graham of Calgary, an opponent he had beaten handily a day earlier, and brought home a silver medal in the 42 kg. class.
“Actually, this was his first ever tournament,” said Mark McRae, coach of both the B.C. and Guildford Park teams.
“Isaac only stepped on the mat for the first time a month ago, and has skyrocketed into one of B.C.’s best lightweights in only a month. He was beating kids that were two or three years older and with much more wrestling experience.”
Freestyle swimmer Kimberly Bowman won three medals, taking gold as part of the female 400m relay team, as well as silver medals in the 200m relay and the 100m event.
Other gold medalists from Surrey included Cody Campbell (cycling, individual time trial), Ken Barker and Didar Grewal (basketball), Kaitlyn Williams (field hockey), Jacqui Schindel (swimmers with a disability, 200m mixed freestyle relay), Cole Coventry (rugby), and Brook Halversen and Cheryl Windhorst (volleyball).
Sprinter Leon Farrell of North Delta was part of the B.C. team which won gold in the 4x100 relay race.
Silver medalists included Surrey’s Kirsten Kolstad (track and field, women’s 3,000m), Nathan Dewitt (wheelchair track and field, 800m and 1,500), Isabella Bertold (sailing 19-and-under female, Laser Radial), Liza Whitehead (track and field, female 4x100m relay), Antonio Paolini and Nick Senior (baseball), Sally Hillier and Jordyn Newman (basketball), Nicole Ambrose, Jennifer Castillo, Sarah Fitzmaurice, Melissa Horahan, Sarah Pennington, Jenna Richardson and Gurkaram Jawandha (soccer), Robert Byron (softball) and David Klomps (male volleyball).
Three track and field athletes won bronze, including Kolstad in the 5,000m, Lara Ter Laak in hammer throw and Dewitt in the wheelchair 200m event.
North Delta’s Preston Carlile (baseball) and Andrew Wong (sailing, 19-and-under male, Lasers) were silver medalists.
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