Canadian Olympic gold medalist Erica Wiebe of Stittsville, Ontario won the gold medal in the Matteo Pellicone Wrestling Tournament in Rome, Italy on Thursday. Wiebe placed first in the women’s 76 kilogram division.
Wiebe’s gold medal was one of four medals won by Canadian wrestlers in the tournament. Danielle Lappage of Olds, Alberta won the bronze medal in the women’s 68 kilogram division. Linda Morais of Tecumseh, Ontario won the bronze medal in the women’s 57 kilogram division and Amar Dhesi of Surrey, British Columbia won the bronze medal in the men’s 125 kilogram division.
In the women’s 76 kilograms, Wiebe defeated Andrimar Daniela Lazaro Diaz of Venezuela 12-1 in the round of 16, Aline Rotter Focken of Germany 3-0 in the quarterfinals, Vasilisa Marzaliuk of Belarus in the semifinals and Qian Zhou of China 10-0 in the gold medal match. Rotter Focken and Natalia Vorobeva of Russia won the bronze medals.
In the women’s 57 kilograms, Morais beat Garciela Sanchez Diaz of Spain 4-0 in qualification and then lost 10-4 to Anshu Anshu of India in the round of 16. In the repechage, Morais beat Grace Jacob Bullen of Norway 10-0 and Maria Victoria Baez Dillone of Spain 10-0. In one of two bronze medal matches, Morais beat Jenna Rose Burkert of the United States 10-0. Odunayo Folasade Adekuoroye of Nigeria won the gold medal, Anshu won the silver medal and Allison Ragan of the United States won the other bronze medal.
In the women’s 68 kilogram division, Lappage bounced back after a 3-0 loss to Feng Zhou of China in the round of 16, to beat Alla Cherkasova of the Ukraine 5-1 in the repechage and Divya Kakran of India 12-2 in one of two bronze medal matches. Zhou won the gold medal, Tamyra Mensah of the United States won silver and Blessing Oborududu of Nigeria won the other bronze medal.
In the men’s 125 kilogram division, Dhesi beat Er Songbu of China 11-0 in the qualification and Sumit Sumit 11-0 in the quarterfinals. He then lost 6-0 to Bilial Makhov of Russia 6-0 in the semifinal before beating Daniel Ligeti of Hungary 8-4 in one of two bronze medal matches. Amir Hossein Abbas Zare of Iran won the gold medal, Makhov won the silver medal and Yusup Batirmurzaev of Kazakhstan won the other bronze medal. The medals for Wiebe, Lappage, Morais and Dhesi will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
