This year’s edition of the U23 World Championships were held in Tirana, Albania. Quebec sent a good team to the tournament as Jason Luneau (65 kg, Montreal Wrestling Club NTC), Stone Lewis (70 kg, Montreal Wrestling Club NTC), Connor Church (79 kg, Concordia University) and Virginie Gascon (55 kg, Concordia University) were accompanied by Coach Victor Zilberman.
In his first match, Jason would face off against Ayub Muratovitch Musaev of Belgium. Jason, as always would start the match off strong but would lose via Grand Superiority (10-0) and would not move on to the Repechage.
Jason Luneau
Stone Lewis would start off his tournament with a tough opponent as he would face Rodion Anchugin of Kazakhstan where he would lose a tough match by Grand Superiority (10-0). Rodion would advance all the way to quarter final but would lose his match. Stone would therefore not advance in the tournament.
Stone Lewis
The last match on the Men’s side would be Connor Church. Connor’s first would be against Japan’s Masaki Sato. Japan always has tough wrestlers and Connor would lose his match via pin (4-1). Sato would advance to the quarter-final and lose his match, thereby eliminating Connor’s chances to advance to the Repechage.
The last Quebec athlete to compete was Virginie Gascon. Virginie would begin her tournament in a dominant fashion with a win via Technical Superiority (10-0) vs Nazife Mustafa Tair of Bulgaria. Virginie would move on to her next match where she lose her match via Grand Superiority (12-1) to Mariia Vynnyk of Ukraine. Mariia would next face Umi Imai of Japan in the Semi-final. Mariia would lose her match and Virginie would not advance to the Repechage.
Competition at the World Championships is always difficult. Our athletes accomplished a lot by just qualifying but now must make the next step.