The 2015 World Wrestling Championships and 1st Olympic Qualifier was held in Las Vegas, USA. Representing Palau in the mens freestyle competition were Florian Skilang Temengil, Blesam Tarkong and Christian Etpison Nicolescu. Skilang wrestled in the 125kg freestyle heavy weight division against Diaaeldin Kamal Gouda Abdelmottaleb (Egypt) and did exceptionally well by scoring 2 takedowns for a total of 4 points but lost to Abdelmottaleb at the end of 2 grueling periods with a score of 9-4. Skilang proved to that he could wrestle pound for pound against the Egyptian and actually tired the Egytian out during the competition. Skilang was strong had some nice tackles on the Egyptian. Skilang was able to advance and rank 17 out of 32 wrestlers. Unfortunately, only the top 6 wrestlers in each weight category were able to advance to the Olympic Games.
Christian competed in the mens freestyle 61kg division against Beka Lomtadze of Georgia and lost by a score of 12-0 while Blesam competed in the mens freestyle 65kg division against Ju So Kim of North Korea but lost by 12-0. This was both Christian and Blesam’s first time to compete in a World Championships. All 3 wrestlers will go back and continue to train abroad in their attempt to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games. All 3 athletes are currently ranked #1 in the Oceania and Micronesia region.
All 3 athletes will continue their training abroad as they prepare for the Oceania Championships in New Zealand next year and the upcoming Oceania-Africa Olympic Qualifier and other qualifying tournaments.
Last Modified on 16/09/2015 14:05