Erica Wiebe and Danielle Lappage each win gold at 2018 Poland Open

Erica Wiebe (David Jackson, Canadian Olympic Committee) (with permission)

Canadian Olympic gold medalist Erica Wiebe of Stittsville, Ontario and Danielle Lappage of Olds, Alberta each won the gold medal in women’s wrestling at the 2018 Poland Open on Friday from Ziolkowski, Poland. Wiebe won the gold medal in the women’s 76 kilogram competition, while Lappage won the gold medal in the women’s 65 kilogram competition.

There was one other Canadian who reached the podium in Poland in women’s wrestling on Friday. Jessica MacDonald of Windsor, Ontario won the bronze medal in the women’s 50 kilogram division.

In the women’s 76 kilogram division, Wiebe beat Daria Urszula Osocka of Poland 5-0 in qualification, Vasilisa Marzaliuk of Belarus 3-1 in the quarterfinal, Yasemin Adar of Turkey 3-1 in the semifinal and Aline Focken of Germany 3-0 in the gold medal match. Focken won the silver medal, while Marzaliuk and Paliha Paliha of China shared the bronze medal.

In the women’s 65 kilogram division, Lappage beat Forrest Ann Molinari of the United States 4-0 in qualification, Krystsina Fedarashka of Belarus 4-1 in the quarterfinal, Adela Hanzlickova of the Czech Republic 3-1 in the semifinal and Petra Olli of Finland 3-1 in the gold medal match. Olli won the silver, while Molinari and Moa Lena Maria Nygren of Sweden shared the bronze medal.

In the women’s 50 kilogram division, MacDonald won the bronze medal alongside Whitney Conder of the United States. MacDonald beat Kaixuan Fang of China 4-0 in the round of 16 and then lost to Ilona Semkiv of the Ukraine 3-1 in the quarterfinals. MacDonald then went on to the repechage where she beat Alexandra Koeteles of Hungary and then Emilia Vuc of Romania in the bronze medal game. Mariya Stadnik of Azerbaijan won the gold medal and Semkiv won the silver medal.

The medals for Wiebe, Lappage and MacDonald will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The next major women’s wrestling competition will be the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary from October 22-28.

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