UFA, RUSSIA – Wrestling Canada Lutte (WCL) is pleased to announce the athletes and coaches that will participate in the Junior World Championships, Aug. 16-22.

Team Canada will be comprised of three athletes, four coaches, and a team medical. In addition, Canada is sending three referees to the event.

“The Junior World Championship is the pinnacle for this age group and a tough tournament, even more so considering many juniors haven’t competed over the last 16 months,” said Kimin Kim, WCL NextGen coach. “We created a junior Pan-Am team from the 2019 results and had better results than we expected. From there, we selected the Junior World Championship team.”

Lachlan McNeil, from Toronto, Ontario, will compete in the Men’s 65 kg freestyle weight class. The 20-year-old member of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels wrestling team will be looking to follow up his gold-medal performance at the 2021 Junior Pan-American Championships in Mexico this past June. McNeil has also achieved success nationally with two Canadian Cadet Championships at 50 kg, along with silver at 55 kg.

Joining McNeil on the men’s free style side, in the 79 kg weight class, is Flin Flon, Manitoba’s Carson Lee. Lee, 20, is a member of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies wrestling team and also had a strong performance at the 2021 Junior Pan-Am Championships, finishing second in his division. Lee had a solid U SPORTS season in 2020, earning the conference’s Male Rookie of the Year award.

Renfrew, Ontario’s Jolie Brisco, 19, will compete in the women’s 59 kg weight class. Brisco trains out of the Montreal Wrestling Club and recently earned silver at the 2021 Junior Pan-Am Championships. In 2019, she was the junior Canadian champion in the 57 kg category.

Accompanying the competitors is the coaching staff comprised of: Kim; Martine Dugrenier, Montreal Wrestling Club and Brisco’s coach; Tony Ramos, head coach at the University of North Carolina and McNeil’s coach; and Shane Bradley, Saskatoon Wrestling Club and Lee’s coach.

“We are bringing a quality team to the Junior World Championship,” added Kim. “Jolie has competed there before in 2019 in Estonia. Lachlan will be very competitive; he brings experience and maturity. He has competed at this level, is improving rapidly and is very dedicated. Same with Carson, he has great coaches in Saskatoon and is making that leap. Overall, I am looking for good performances from them all so we can measure where they are.”

Canada’s refereeing team includes Marcia Chiasson, Ryan Forsberg and Jason Flinders.

Complete tournament information, including schedule, streaming and results, can be found at https://uww.org/event/world-championships-54.