At age 29, wrestler Florian Skilang Temengil, will be representing Palau in the upcoming 2016 RIO Olympic Games in the Mens Freestyle Senior 125kg heavy weight division. The last time Temengil competed in the Olympic Games was in 2008 in Beijing, China. According to Mr. Tutii Chilton, President of the Belau Wrestling Federation (BWF), on May 16, 2016, the United World Wrestling (UWW) informed the BWF that following all the effort our athlete, Florian Skilang Temengil, made during the Qualification Tournaments, UWW will allocate one quota for Temengil to compete in the RIO Olympic Games.
Last year, Temengil competed at the 1st Olympic Qualifier / World Championships held in Las Vegas, USA. Temengil competed in the 125kg freestyle heavy weight division against Diaaeldin Kamal Gouda Abdelmottaleb (Egypt). Temengil did exceptionally well by scoring 4 points against the Egyptian but lost to after the 2nd grueling period with a score of 9-4. Skilang was able to advance and rank 17 out of 32 wrestlers. Unfortunately, only the top 6 wrestlers in each weight category were able to advance to the Olympic Games.
In March 12, 2016, Temengil competed in the mens senior freestyle 125kg weight division and won the gold medal at the 2016 Oceania Championships held in Hamilton, New Zealand. It should be noted that over the past decade, Temengil has continued to retain his #1 ranking in Oceania in the mens freestyle heavyweight division.
Temengil then went on to compete in the Africa Oceania Olympic Qualifier held in Algeria, Africa winning the bronze medal. Temengil was shy of qualifying for the Olympic Games since only the top 2 ranking athletes would win a spot for the Olympic Games.
Temengil then competed on May 08th at the final Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey. Temengil competed against Lyuben Borisov Iliev of Bulgaria but lost in the 2nd period 10-0. Bulgaria ranked 9th overall. Ukraine went on to win the gold medal match against Belarus who placed 2nd in the final qualification. In this final Olympic Qualification Tournament only the top 2 wrestlers goes to the RIO Olympic Games. Temengil ranked 19th overall.
Also competing in Turkey was Cristian Etpison Nicolescu in the mens senior freestyle 65kg weight division. Cristian competed against Bilal El Quarraqe of Morrocco but lost 10-0 by technical fall. Cristian ranked 26th out of 32 wrestlers.
BWF was able to notify the Palau National Olympic Committee (PNOC) of the good news and upon receipt of the official notice from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), PNOC will then confirm the place for Temengil to the IOC. Temengil has been notified of this good news and everyone is excited that he will have this opportunity once again to represent Palau and his family in the upcoming Olympic Games in Brazil.
BWF would like to thank UWW, IOC Tripartite Commission and PNOC for their support and selection of Mr. Temengil.
Last Modified on 25/05/2016 12:58