FEBRUARY 2008 -- PART 1

PALAU:  Results of the 1st Day of the 2008 Oceania Championships in Freestyle Mens Wrestling
By John Tarkong (2/9/2008)

The 2008 Oceania Championships was held at the Australia Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra, Australia on Saturday, February 09, 2008. This was the 1st day of competitions in the Freestyle competitions. Palau sent three (3) wrestlers to include Elgin Elwais, Franson Giboons, Florian Skilang Temengil along with Coach Young Ho, Ko and John Tarkong Jr. After three days of training and cutting weight in Australia, the wrestlers competed today. Since the Oceania Championships is an Olympic Qualifying Event for Freestyle, Greco Roman and Female Wrestling, 7 places will be decided by the Oceania Executive Committee and FILA after the Competitions and also after the Doping Tests for all Gold Medalists are completed.

Elgin Elwais − As of today, Elgin Elwais wrestled Farzad Tarasm of Australia in the Mens Senior Freestyle 55kg weight class

During the 1st period of the match Elgin and Farzad had a very exciting match as both wrestlers tried to score on each other but found it impossible. After 2 minutes of wrestling during the first period the score remained 0-0. The referee threw a coin toss and Australia won the toss resulting in the Australia having the choice of which leg to grab. On the whistle, Farzad was able to lock his hands on Elgin’s leg for a take down resulting in 1 point to win in overtime.

During the 2nd period of the match, Elgin and Farzad continued to battle but Farzad scored the first points to eventually defeat Elgin. Elgin eventually placed 2nd in the Freestyle match. Although this was an upset for Elgin, immediately after the match, he began to prepare and focus on cutting weight for tomorrows match in Greco Roman tomorrow (Sunday).

Franson Gibbons  − Franson wrestled in the 66kg weight class for Freestyle. Franson wrestled Katea Ueresi of Solomons and lost the 1st period of the match, but came back in the 2nd period and was leading by 5-2 when he made a fatal mistake while holding his opponent to his back and lost the match. Franson went on to win Gentian Balashi of Australia but lost. Katea also lost to Balashi later on who proved to be very tough. Later on, Franson wrestled Clinton Davis of New Zealand and won the 1st period with a score of 4-2 and 2nd period 6-0 to win the match. Franson eventually placed 3rd and won the bronze medal.

Florian Skilang Temengil − What can I say. Skilang wrestled Australia’s Dennis Roberts in the 120kg Freestyle for the heavyweights. During the 1st period of the match, Skilang lost with a score of 0-6. Ski was so disappointed after the 1st period and after knowing what was at stake, he came back during the 2nd period to press hard and win by 3-0. During the 3rd and final period of the match against Australia, Skilang was able to score the first points and eventually overpowered Roberts 3-2 to win the match. Skilang went on to wrestle American Samoa’s heavyweight and won the 1st period with a score of 3-0 and during the 2nd period Skilang pinned Philip Trani of American Samoa in 32 seconds of the period.

Out of the eight Oceania Countries that attended the Oceania Championships, Australia dominated the freestyle competition today and won 6 out of the 7 weight classes. Only Skilang from Palau was able to win a very tough match in the freestyle 120kg Class. Since Skilang won the Gold Medal, this means that he might have a chance of being selected by FILA and the Oceania Executive Committee of going to the Olympics. The selections, according to FILA, will be based on their ranking from the 2007 World Championships and their ranking in the Oceania Championships. In addition, all of the Gold Medal winners were Drug Tested today after the event and those wrestlers winning gold medals tomorrow must also be drug tested. Once the results are determined, then the selections will be made on the 7 places from the Freestyle, Greco Roman and Female Wrestlers.

As of right now, Elgin and Franson still have a chance to qualify in tomorrows Greco Roman Events. Although Florian Temengil won the Gold Medal today, he will compete tomorrow despite a neck injury. Out of the Oceania Countries that took part in the Championships, American Samoa, Australia, FSM, Guam, Samoa, New Zealand and Palau attended the Oceania’s.