LIMA, PERU – It was a strong tournament for Canadian wrestlers at the 2024 U20 Pan-American Championships, July 11-13, in Lima, Peru. When the competition was complete, Canadians bagged a total of 12 medals (one gold, five silver and six bronze). Both the men’s freestyle and women’s teams also found the podium with the men finishing second and the women third.

Canada’s tournament was highlighted by Maple Ridge, B.C.’s Madisyn Grof who captured gold in the women’s 55kg weight class. Grof put on a strong performance winning all of her matches by technical superiority to top the podium. Afterwards, the Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Club member summed up the feeling. “It feels great! All of the hard work paid off. That’s about it, I just never quit and now I have this gold medal, Go Canada!”

Women’s Results

Canadian women added a pair of silver medals and a bronze to the haul. St. Catherines, Ontario’s Vanessa Keefe won silver at 68kg, Abbotsford, B.C.’s Rupinder Johal took silver at 76kg and Hamilton’s Tehani Blais earned bronze at 72kg.

Other women’s results included: Brampton, Ontario’s Prabhleen Randhawa fourth at 65kg; Port Moody, B.C.’s Ella Finding fifth at 57kg; Maple Ridge’s Ashton Senko fifth at 59kg; and Saskatoon’s Sierra Mullin seventh at 53kg.

Men’s Results

On the men’s freestyle side there were also a pair of silver medalists in Abbotsford’s Tejvir Dhinsa at 97kg and Mississauga’s Omogbai Asekomhe at 125kg.

The men claimed five additional bronze medals by: Pickering, Ontario’s Blayne Helou at 61kg; Surrey, B.C.’s Sehaj Sidhu at 70kg; South Bend, Indiana’s William Kennedy at 74kg; Surrey’s Rohit Bal at 86kg; and Montreal’s Zaurbek Arsagov at 92kg.

Rounding out the rest of the results were Guelph, Ontario’s Nathan Hunyady seventh at 65kg and Welland, Ontario’s Matteo Romano ninth at 57kg.

Greco Roman results

Canada had one competitor in the Greco-Roman competition. Abbotsford’s Jorawar Dhinsa picked up a silver medal at 130kg.

For compete tournament information visit the tournament site at: https://uww.org/event/u20-pan-american-championships/results

The next event for the Canadian U20 team is the U20 World Championships, Sept. 2-8, in Pontevedra, Spain.