Pan American Olympic qualifiers starts today, 5 headline battles to watch out for

As the world is gripped with pandemic called Coronavirus and the sporting events world over stays impacted, the world of wrestling will witness some action on the mat today. The Pan American Olympic wrestling Qualifier is beginning today in Ottawa, Canada. The wrestlers from the region will battle out for the two quota places in each Olympic category over the next 3 days. Without any doubt, the wrestlers from USA will start as favorite to book quota places in most of the categories.

This summer, at the 2019 World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, the U.S. qualified the men’s freestyle 74 kg and 97 kg weight classes and the women’s freestyle 68 kg and 76 kg weight classes. At 74 kg, Jordan Burroughs earned a World bronze medal and Kyle Snyder also brought home bronze at 97 kg. Tamyra Mensah-Stock earned her first world title at 68 kg, while Adeline Gray took gold at 76 kg.

Though the day 1 will exclusively feature Greco-Roman wrestling, the five headline battles to watch out for during the 3 day action featuring some of the biggest names of the world of wrestling will be in the freestyle competitions on Day 2 and Day 3.

Sarah Hildebrandt – 50kg

Kicking it off for the women at 50 kg will be 2018 World silver medalist at 53 kg Sarah Hildebrandt. She will open with the winner of Rita Rojas Chavez of Mexico, a 2018 Junior Pan Am Championships bronze medalist, or Jacqueline del Rocio Mollocano Eleno of Ecuador, a 2020 Pan Am Championships bronze medalist. Sarah has moved to 50kg from 53kg in order to qualify for Tokyo 2020.

Jacarra Winchester – 53kg

2019 55 kg World champion Jacarra Winchester will be the U.S. representative at 53 kg. In the opening round of her pool she will wrestle Lienne de la Caridad Montero Herrera of Cuba, a 2018 World bronze medalist at 55 kg and the 2020 Pan Am Championships bronze medalist. Like Sarah, Jacarra also moves down to 53kg and will aim to qualify for Tokyo in the category which will feature India’s Vinesh Phogat at the Olympics.

57kg 2016 Olympic Champion Helen Maroulis vs 2019 World Champion Linda Morais

At 57 kg, 2016 Olympic champion Helen Maroulis drew 2019 World champion at 59 kg Linda Morais of Canada in the first round of her pool. Morais also holds a bronze from the 2016 World Championships. This means only one of these champions will qualify for Tokyo Olympics through this tournament

David Taylor returns to mat in 86kg

The tournament will conclude with men’s freestyle, which will take place on Sunday. 2018 World champion David Taylor makes his return to the mat at 86 kg after a hiatus due to injury. In the opening round, Taylor will take on Venezuela’s Pedro Francisco Ceballos Fuentes of Venezuela. A fifth place finisher at the 2016 Olympic Games, Ceballos Fuentes finished runner-up at the 2019 Pan Am Games and ninth at the 2020 Pan Am Championships.

Oscar Pino Hinds – Can he create history ?

Cuban Pino Hinds had already booked a quota place for Olympics 2020 by finishing with silver medal at the 2019 world championships. But as his mentor Milan Lopez decided to comeback to the Olympic fold in his bid to win unprecedented 4th Gold, Hinds has once again taken the road to qualification. And surprisingly not in Greco-Roman but in Freestyle category. Hinds will stake his claim in 125kg and it will be interesting to watch whether he can create history by booking quota places in both Greco-Roman and Freestyle competitions of Olympic wrestling.

The entire action of the Pan American Olympic Qualifier will be streamed live on WrestlingTV.in straight from Ottawa.

2020 Pan American Olympic Qualifier
at Ottawa, Canada (March 13-15)

Men’s freestyle roster
57 kg: Thomas Gilman (USA)
vs. Ligrit Sadiku (Canada), 2020 Pan Am Championships 5th

65 kg: Zain Retherford (USA)
vs. Jose Javier Rodriguez Colon (Puerto Rico), 2020 Pan Am Championships 5th

86 kg: David Taylor (USA)
vs. Pedro Francisco Ceballos Fuentes (Venezuela), Silver at 2019 Pan Am Games, 9th at 2020 Pan Am Championships

125 kg: Nick Gwiazdowski (USA)
vs. Charles Merrill (Puerto Rico), 5th at 2020 Pan Am Championships

Women’s freestyle roster
50 kg: Sarah Hildebrandt (USA)
Rita Rojas Chavez (Mexico), 2018 Junior Pan Am Championships bronze, OR Jacqueline del Rocio Mollocano Eleno (Ecuador), 2020 Pan Am Championships bronze

53 kg: Jacarra Winchester (USA)
Lienne de la Caridad Montero Herrera (Cuba), 2018 World bronze, 2020 Pan American Championships bronze

57 kg: Helen Maroulis (USA)
vs. Linda Morais (Canada), 2019 World champion at 59 kg.

62 kg: Kayla Miracle (USA)
vs. Nathaly Josefina Griman Herrera (Venezuela), 4th at 2020 Pan Am Championships

Greco-Roman roster
60 kg: Ildar Hafizov (USA)
vs. Andres Roberto Montano Arroyo (Cuba), 2019 Pan Am Games champion

67 kg: Alejandro Sancho (USA)
vs. Cristobal Torres Nunes (Chile), 2020 Pan American Championships 5th OR Enyer Feliciano (Dominican Republic), Pan American Championships 95th

77 kg: Pat Smith (USA)
vs. John Yeats (Canada), 2017 Junior Pan Am champion

87 kg: Joe Rau (USA)
vs. Luis Eduardo Avendano Rojas (Venezuela), 2019 Pan Am Games champion, 5th at 2020 Pan Am Championships OR Carlos Munoz Jaramillo (Columbia), 2020 Pan Am Championships runner-up, 5th at 2019 Pan Am Games

97 kg: G’Angelo Hancock (USA)
vs. Luis Rivera Alvarado (Mexico)

130 kg: Adam Coon (USA)
vs. Yasmani Acosta Fernandez, 2011 Pan Am Championship gold medalist, 2020 Pan Am 8th

Date	Events	Venue
26-27 March, 2021	Cadet Greco Roman Style National Wrestling Championship	Chandigarh
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Pan American Olympic qualifiers starts today, 5 headline battles to watch out for

Pan American Olympic qualifiers starts today, 5 headline battles to watch out for

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