Photo Courtesy of Walter Howor

PANAMA CITY, PANAMA – The 2026 U17 Pan-American (Pan-Am) Championships kicked off on April 2 from Panama City, Panama with the men’s Freestyle competition. Ten of Canada’s best up and commers were in action and, at the end of the day, had won six medals (one gold, three silver and two bronze).

The men were led by a golden performance from Middlesex, Ontario’s Jerin Coles. Coles, from London-Western WC, had a dominant tournament that included superiority wins over Panama in the qualification round 10-0, and Venezuela in the quarterfinal 11-0. He continued to roll with a win by fall over Brazil in the semifinal to book his spot in the gold medal match. In the final, he battled American Aiden Arnett and while it was closer, Coles emerged victorious 12-8.

“For me, this is just another step towards achieving my goals,” said Coles after the win. “I came here expecting to win and with the mindset of winning. I want to win a world title this year, so this is this first step. I am here to get better. I will enjoy it tonight but then head home and get right back to work.”

Surrey, British Columbia’s Uday Billen earned the first silver at 110kg. Billen went 3-1 in his round robin and finished with the second-best record to secure the medal. Bright, Ontario’s Brealey Peters also earned a silver at 80kg. He earned a spot in the finals thanks to wins over Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic but fell just short losing to USA in the finals. Saskatoon’s Tyler Langford also picked up a silver at 92kg. Langford scored wins over Chile and Peru before losing in the gold medal match to the USA.

Bronze medals were won by Calgary’s Jack Aucoin at 48kg and Toronto’s Jonrex Casa at 55kg.

The rest of the men’s results were: Burnaby, British Columbia’s Ben Musovic 5^th at 60kg; Surrey’s Gaurav Bahi 7^th at 51kg; Montreal’s Vitalie Clima 7^th at 65kg; and Burnaby’s; Ronin Mann 8^th at 45kg.

Canada finished second overall in the Men’s Freestyle team standings.

For complete results visit the tournament page at: https://uww.org/event/u17-pan-american-championships-1/results.

Tomorrow, April 3,  the Canadian women are in action with 10 competitors all looking to find the podium. Action begins at 10 a.m. local time. Matches can be watched on UWW+.