Wrestlers Gear Up For Summer Games

On Sunday, May 1, UCC was the location for the South-West Regional Wrestling Training Camp for the Ontario Summer Games.

Head coach and wrestler, Chris Parent, welcomed the chance for the camp to be held at UCC where they’ve had a freestyle wrestling team over the past 13 years.

The Ontario Summer Games will be held August 11-13 in Mississauga, featuring wrestlers born 2000-2003.

Guest clinician, Saeed Azarbayjani, 2008 Olympian and present coach of Team Impact, drove in from Toronto to teach technique to roughly 50 wrestlers from across Chatham, Lakeshore, Sarnia, Essex, Windsor & London.

Wrestlers had the chance to learn and perfect their stance, set-ups, attacks, take-down’s and exposure moves. The 5 hour training session ended with scrimmaging to let the athletes have the opportunity to assimilate what they had worked on so tireously through-out the day. This was the first of 2 camps this month to be run at UCC, the second, on May 29th, will feature 2012 Olympian David Tremblay.

At the next camp, more technique will be shown as well there will be wrestle-offs, where wrestlers will vie off against each-other the to be the number 1 finisher whom will represent South Western Ontario at the Summer Games. The regional team will be comprised of 11 boys and 9 girls, 1 from each of the weight categories for girls from 36 to 81kg, and for boys from 36 to 115kg.

UCC had a handful of wrestlers that will compete for the chance to be part of this elite group. They are Benjamin Parent, Khuen-Dte Jung, Jayk Lessard & Sophia Cedeno-Quintana.