On Wednesday, August 27th in the mens freestyle 63kg weight division, there were 2 pools with a total of 4 athletes in each pool. The matches were very tough. James competed in his first match against Elbert Steyn of South Africa. James tried to shoot for a takedown but Styeyn countered and was able to get 4 points for a takedown and win the match by fall. James then went on to wrestle Iveriko Julakidze of Georgia who won by technical points 13-2. James then wrestled Teymur Mammadov of Azerbaijan and Teymur won 12-0. James went on to wrestle Douglas Lloyd of New Zealand in his final match of the day but lost by technical points 10-0. Azerbaijan went on to win the gold medal match against Anthony Montero of Venezuela while Julakidze of Georgia went on to win the bronze medal over Amit Kumar of India. Although James trained hard for the YOG, with less than a year of training, his opponents proved to be very tough.
According to Coach Tarkong, this experience and opportunity should be able to help James return and realize why it is so important to train even harder especially considering that we need more funding, opportunities to compete in the region and level of support in our sport.
Last Modified on 18/11/2014 13:38