BELGRADE, SERBIA – A pair of Canadian wrestles are coming home with medals from the Senior World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, September 10-18. Montreal’s Linda Morais and Coquitlam, B.C.’s Karla Godinez Gonzalez each captured bronze at the event.

Godinez Gonzalez, from Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club, was in action first and picked up wins over Shokhida Akhmedova of Uzbekistan and Andreea Ana of Romania before losing her semifinal match to Ukrainian Oleksandra Khomenets. That sent her to the 55kg bronze medal match against Moldova’s Mariana Dragutan, where Godinez Gonzalez took the win 6-2.

An emotional Godinez Gonzalez talked about how she was able to let go in the match and how it led to her success. “I think I was fighting with myself a bit. I work really hard but when it comes to competitions, I think I fight with my own thoughts. I want to control every little thing, but I have to just let it go because doing that is how I lost my last match (semifinal). So, I decided to just go for it, and the results happened!”

The medal was the third international medal for Godinez Gonzalez in 2022 after capturing gold at the Pan-American Championships and silver at the Grand Prix of Spain.

As for Morais, the Montreal NTC product and former World Champion at 59kg, was tackling a new challenge competing at 68kg. She opened the tournament with a win over Meerim Zhumanazarova of Kyrgyzstan. In the quarterfinal, she squared off with Japan’s Ami Ishii. Morais was actually up in the match when Ishii was able to score a fall for the win. However, Morais would get another chance in the repechage. She faced Pauline Lecarpentier of France and came away with a 2-1 victory.  In the bronze medal match, Morais was able to pin Nisha Nisha of India to claim the medal.

“I have focused on having the mentality of going out there and enjoying myself. I have put a lot of stress and pressure on myself, in the past, especially before Tokyo and I didn’t qualify for the Olympics. Going into this competition, I just wanted to enjoy it,” said Morais after the win. “When I got scored on early, the old me would have panicked but this me just looked to see if I could score and stayed calm.”

Women’s Team Results

Burnaby, B.C.’s Justina Di Stasio finished fifth at 76kg, Coquitlam’s Ana Godinez Gonzalez was fifth at 62kg, McKellar, ON’s Shauna Kuebeck was eighth at 72kg, Komoka, ON’s Madi Parks was 10^th at 50kg, Summerside, P.E.I’s Hannah Taylor was 12^th at 57kg, Edmonton’s Aleah Nickel was 12^th at 65kg, Montreal’s Laurence Beauregard was 13^th at 59kg, and Fredericton’s Samantha Stewart was 22^nd at 53kg.

The women’s team finished sixth overall at the competition.

Men’s Team results

The top result on the men’s side was Surrey, B.C.’s Amar Dhesi. Dhesi, from Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club, took fifth in the men’s 125kg after battling back through the repechage.

Abbotsford, B.C.’s Jasmit Phulka was 16th at 74kg, St-Lazare, QC’s Jason Luneau was 19th at 61kg, North York, ON’s Lachlan McNeil was 20th at 65kg, Niagara Falls’ Richard DesChatelets was 20th at 92kg, Abbotsford’s Nishan Randhawa was 21st at 97kg, Pierrefonds, QC’s Vincent De Marinis was 24th at 70kg, Montreal’s Alex Moore was 24th at 86kg, Coquitlam’s Darthe Capellan was 25th at 57kg and Komoka’s Adam Thomson was 32nd at 79kg.

For complete tournament results, including to livestream matches, visit: https://uww.org/event/world-championships-61?section=results