The 2015 Oceania Wrestling Championships was held in Majuro, Marshall Islands from March 20-23, 2015. The athletes representing Palau was Gerome Petrus, Christian Etpison Nicolescu, Blesam Tarkong and Skilang Temengil. Other members included Samantha Rechelluul (Coach) and John Tarkong Jr. (Team leader).
On the first day of competition, Palau had 3 athletes competing in the both the junior and senior division. Christian was able to defeat 3 of his opponents in the 60kg junior division but lost in the finals to Risky Predrick of FSM. In the senior division, Christian was able to come back and win the gold medal. Blesam Tarkong came out strong in the competition defeating both James Chutaro of the Marshalls and Zucky Wase also of the Marshalls to win the gold medal in the junior division. Blesam went on to wrestle in the 66kg senior division defeating 3 of his opponents from the Marshalls, Bingham Lowe from Nauru and Rudolpho Keinichi from FSM. In the finals Blesam wrestled Adam Collett of Australia and this was one of the best matches ever as both athletes fought hard during the match. Collet was able to win the match for the gold and Blesam settling for the bronze despite the win over Nauru. Another young and promising wrestler Gerome Petrus competed in a very tough weight division against 6 other wrestlers from Guam, Nauru, FSM and Marshalls. Gerome won the bronze medal in the 74kg junior division while Micah Lopez won the gold medal. In the Greco Roman 75kg senior division Gerome wrestled 8 wrestlers earning his way to the finals to win silver medal while Micah Lopez won the gold.
On the next day of competition, Christian won 2 gold medals in the junior freestyle 61kg and mens 61kg senior division. Blesam was able to come out and give it his best by defeating his opponents and winning 2 gold medals in the junior and senior division. One of the highlights of the day was Blesam defeating Adam Collett of Australia in the mens senior 66kg freestyle division. After losing the day before to Collet, Blesam was able to shoot and counter his way through the mat by taking control on the mat. This was a very tough match as both athletes gave it their best. Blesam eventually won the gold, Collet winning silver. Gerome Petrus won a silver medal in the junior freestyle 74kg division and bronze medal in the mens senior freestyle 74kg division with Australia winning Gold and Marshalls winning silver. Skilang won gold medal in the freestyle senior division 125kg after defeating, Guam who placed 2nd and American Samoa 3rd place.
On the last day of the events, the Oceania Beach wrestling competition, an open tournament, was held. In the light weight division, Aaron Coffman of FSM won the gold, Lee Yu of Korea won silver and both Joey Lopez and Micah Lopez both winning 2 bronze medals. In the heavyweight division, Skilang Temengil won the gold medal while John Tarkong Jr. won the silver medal and Ryan Tochi Babauta representing CNMI won bronze. Samantha also won a gold medal in the womens beach wrestling event.
Congratulations goes out to both Samantha and John who took part in the Coaching Educators Course hosted by United World Wrestling. There were over 30 coaches taking part in this course. Overall, the tournament was a success with Palau winning numerous medals to include 9 gold medals, 6 silver and 2 bronze medals. Special thanks goes out to the Marshalls Organizing Committee for hosting a wonderful event and most of all our sponsors to include WCTC, our corporate sponsor, Palau Pacific Resort, Etpison Foundation and Palau National Olympic Committee (PNOC) for their valuable contribution. Without your help none of this would have been possible.
With the Olympic Games coming up next year preparations are underway to prepare our athletes and coaches to seek the best training for our athletes. Both Skilang Temengil and Blesam Tarkong was awarded the IOC Scholarships so congratulations to both athletes for their continued success and all the athletes for their hard work, dedication and training.
Last Modified on 17/04/2015 03:33