TIRANA, ALBANIA – It was a great day for the Canadian women on Oct. 25th at the 2024 U23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania, as two athletes found themselves on the podium. Stoney Creek, Ontario’s Serena Di Benedetto and Edmonton’s Vianne Rouleau captured silver medals to cap off impressive competitions for both competitors.

Di Benedetto, who trains at the Hamilton Wrestling Club, captured her medal in the women’s 53kg weight class. She opened the competition with a 6-0 victory by fall over Sila Aykul of Turkey. In the quarterfinal, she squared off with Germany’s Anastasia Blayvas and won an entertaining contest 13-6. That earned her a semifinal match with China’s Xiaomin Xie. Di Benedetto put on another strong performance winning this one 10-5.

In the final, she faced Yu Sakamoto of Japan, a former U20 Asian Champion. It was a fast-paced match that saw Sakamoto take a 6-0 lead after the first half. Sakamoto scored quickly in the second and finished the match 11-0, meaning it would be silver for Di Benedetto.

As for Rouleau, from Edmonton Wrestling Club, she earned her medal at 72kg. She began the competition with a 2-1 win by fall over Olesia Bezuglova (Independent Neutral Athletes). Next, she matched up China’s Yufei Gao. With Rouleau leading the match 4-0, Gao was forced to retire from the match with injury, advancing Rouleau to the semifinal. In the semifinal, she put on a dominate performance against Viktoryia Radzkova (Independent Neutral Athletes) to punch her ticket to the finals.

Rouleau matched up against American Kylie Welker in the finals. Welker won a bronze at the U23 Worlds in 2021 and is also a former U20 world champion. Welker came out quick in this one scoring early points and ultimately the fall to beat Rouleau. The loss meant Rouleau would have to settle for silver.

Women’s results

Other Canadian women’s results included: Lethbridge, Alberta’s Angelina Ellis-Toddington eighth at 65kg; St. Catharines, Ontario’s Mia Friesen ninth at 57kg; Brights Grove, Ontario’s Brianna Fraser ninth at 76kg; Mission B.C.’s Victoria Seal 12^th at 55kg; Swift Current, Saskatchewan’s Aleah Nickel 16^th at 68kg; Brampton, Ontario’s Kelyn Young 18^th at 50kg; and Calgary’s Gabriela Cross 19^th at 59kg.

Men’s results

On the men’s side, the top finish went to Surrey, B.C.’s Owen Martin. Martin lost his opening contest at 79kg to Mahdi Yousefihajivar of Iran, who went on to win gold. Martin was drawn back into the repechage and earned victories over Raffaele Matrullo (6-5) of Italy and Ivan Harashuk (9-2) of Ukraine. That got him a bronze medal match against Masaki Sato of Japan. Unfortunately, Owen’s run ended with Sato, and he finished fifth.

The rest of the men’s results were: Pickering, Ontario’s Dechlan Papadopoulous 12^th at 61kg; Mississauga, Ontario’s Patrik Leder 12^th at 74kg; Kitchener, Ontario’s Callum Knox 12^th at 97kg; Abbotsford, B.C.’s Jorawar Dhinsa 16^th at 125kg; Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta’s Taran Goring 19^th at 86kg; and Edmonton’s Aidan Stevenson 19^th at 92kg.

For complete tournament information visit: https://uww.org/event/u23-world-championships-0/results.