OTTAWA— Wrestling Canada Lutte (WCL) is proud to announce that a pair of athletes have received Quest for Gold Awards for their performance at the 2022 Senior World Championships.

The WCL Board of Directors strongly supported awards this year for Surrey, B.C.’s Karla Godinez Gonzalez and Montreal’s Linda Morais based on their bronze medal winning performances at the World Championships, held September 10-18 in Belgrade, Serbia.

WCL established the Quest for Gold Awards in 1992 to recognize the athletic achievements of wrestlers who have reached the podium at the World Championships and Olympic Games. Since inception, more than $160,000 in grants has been awarded to athletes through the Quest for Gold fund through 68 medal performances.

For the 2022 awards, both Godinez Gonzalez and Morais will receive $2,000. At the Worlds, Godinez Gonzalez, from Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club, 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.

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 but fell in the quarterfinal. 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.

Congratulations goes out to both women for their exceptional performances. Thanks also to the donors of the Quest for Gold program for the continued support of this valuable recognition program that supports top performing athletes.

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