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Morais to wrestle for World Championship gold

September 18, 2019

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan – Linda Morais of the Montreal Wrestling Club will compete in the gold medal final in the 59 kg weight-class at the 2019 Senior World Championships.

Morais, 26, defeated Shoovdor Baatarjav of Mongolia to earn a spot in the gold medal match. Morais won the bout 3-1.

“It’s so surreal, I’m so excited,” said Morais. “This year has been amazing so far and I’m hoping to end it with gold. It was a tough match, physically I felt okay, but mentally it was such a challenge. Going match after match against incredible opponents is so tough.”

Morais, of Tecumseh, Ont., will wrestle Liubov Ovcharova of Russia in the finals.

“I’m going to focus on my strengths. I’m going to focus sprawling, defending, all the while taking my attacks and focusing on what I can control.”

Earlier in the day, Morais defeated Tetiana Omelchenko of Azerbaijan 6-4 in the quarterfinal and Ukraine’s Anhelina Lysak 12-2 by technical superiority 12-2 in the 1/8 final.

In 2016, Morais captured a World Championships bronze medal at 60 kg.

Wiebe drops quarterfinal matchup

Erica Wiebe lost her quarterfinal match against Epp Maee of Estonia. Wiebe led 3-1 with under five seconds to go, but Maee scored a takedown before time ran out. A failed Canadian challenge brought the final score to 4-3 for Maee.

“When you train so hard and you make mistakes mentally, you don’t wrestle for the full six minutes, that’s what happens. This year, I’ve gone through a lot of challenges, mentally, physically, emotionally, I honestly thought I was going to be better than that today.”

Wiebe defeated Aiperi Kyzy of Kyrgyzstan 5-0 in the 1/8 final, and Hungary’s Zsanett Nemeth 5-1 in the qualification round.

Jade Parsons lost her 55 kg repechage match to Russian Olga Khoroshavtseva. The 28-year-old from Orillia, Ont., fell 6-2 in an attempt to qualify for the bronze medal match.

Hannah Taylor and Jessica Brouillette also wrestled on Wednesday, but were eliminated in their first matches of the day.

Taylor lost her 57 kg qualification round match to In Sun Jong of People’s Republic of Korea 9-2. It was the first Senior World Championships for the 21-year-old from Cornwall, P.E.I.

Brouillette, 24, fell to Bulgaria’s Yuliana Yaneva by technical superiority 11-0.

The competition resumes tomorrow with two more women, and two men competing for Canada. Ana Godinez (62 kg), Danielle Lappage (68 kg), and Darthe Capellan (57 kg), and Dillon Williams (65 kg) will step on the mats tomorrow.

Complete results and webcasts are available here.