(Paris, France) – Day 3 of the 2017 Senior World Championships saw Michelle Fazzari (58 kg) and Justina Di Stasio (75 kg) capture bronze for Team Canada.

Michelle Fazzari first faced Koblova Zholobova of Russia and was leading 2-1, when the Russian withdrew due to an injury. Fazzari then came back with a strong performance beating Netreba of Azerbaijan with a 10-0 technical superiority. In the semi-finals, Fazzari was defeated 0-10 by Helen Maroulis, the eventual gold medallist from the United States, Olympic Champion at 53 kg from the Rio Games. Michelle refocused for the evening session and defeated her Swedish opponent Nilsson 7-0 in the final match of the day to win the bronze.

In the 75 kg division, Justina Di Stasio came out strong, winning 10-0 by technical superiority against Saenko of Moldova, followed by a 7-0 win over Pooja of India. She then lost 4-7 to Marzaliuk of Belarus in the quarter-finals, who placed 5^th at the Rio Olympics. She rebounded in the repechage to beat out Medet Kyzy of Kyrgysztan 6-4 and then defeated Paliha of China 3-1 by fall to take bronze in her final match.

Earlier in the day, Diana Weicker, wrestling at 55 kg, won her first match, defeating Paruszewski of Germany 5-1, before falling to Kurachkina of Belarus 2-10 and being eliminated. Braxton Stone-Papadopoulos (63 kg) had a tough day, being defeated 4-4 by fall by Sahin of Turkey.

Canada had one representative in the Greco-Roman portion of the tournament. Thomas Barreiro (98 kg) wrestled on day 1, losing 1-4 to Atafi of Morocco and was eliminated from the tournament.

Leigh Vierling, High Performance Director, shared his thoughts, stating “it’s always hard to explain the roller of the world championships. A year of literal blood, sweat and tears for the athletes. Means that successes are so elating and failures so devastating. Yet we pick ourselves up and come back for more.

Congrats to the team today for their grit and determination. For Justina and Michelle, this represents something very special. A moment in time where you accomplished something that very few do”.

Wrestling continues on Thursday at 10 am local time, with the four remaining women’s weight classes represented by Jasmine Mian (48 kg), Jessica MacDonald (53 kg), Linda Morais (60 kg) and Olivia Di Bacco (69 kg). Men’s freestyle competition will take place on Friday and Saturday. All wrestling takes place at the Accor Hotels Arena in Paris.

Detailed results and livestream are available: https://unitedworldwrestling.org/event/world-championships-27

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