TALLINN, Estonia – Hunter Lee of Flin Flon, Man., won his bronze medal match to reach the podium at the Junior World Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.

Lee, who trains with the Saskatoon Wrestling Club, defeated Georgian Miriani Maisuradze 4-2 in the 86 kg bronze medal final.

The 19-year-old got his tournament started with a 5-2 win over Mher Markosyan of Armenia in the 1/8 final. He went on to lose in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Deepak Punia of India 5-1.

Lee was pulled into the repechage when Punia won his semifinal match. In the repechage bout, Lee defeated Hungary’s Milan Andras Korcsog 2-0 to qualify for the bronze medal final.

The medal is Lee’s first at the world level. At the 2018 Junior World Championships he finished thirteenth at 92 kg.

The competition resumes tomorrow with Canadian women in action. Berit Johnson and Virginie Kaze-Gascon qualified for the 68 kg and 55 kg repechage matches, and will look to wrestle for bronze.

The other men’s final placements were:

14^th – Jakson Serna – 125 kg
19^th – Ikjyot Randhawa – 97 kg
21^st – Julien Choquette – 92 kg
23^rd – Brayden Todd – 57 kg
24^th – Carson Lee – 79 kg
26^th – Daniel Coles – 65 kg

Complete results are available here.