OTTAWA – Alexandria Town claimed Canada’s first gold medal of the Pan-American Championships.

The 24-year-old won all three of her 59 kg round-robin matches by technical superiority, defeating her opponents by ten or more points.

“It was a great experience to wrestle today,” said Town, of the York Wrestling Club. “I had a lot of fun out there working my moves. I’m glad I got the opportunity to have some international opponents.”

Town, of the York Wrestling Club, was a U23 World Champion in 2018 and finished third at the Canadian Wrestling Trials in December.

“I’m constantly improving, there’s a lot of little things I need to keep working on but I’m happy with how I wrestled.”

Shauna Kuebeck captured bronze in the 72 kg round-robin. Kuebeck defeated Brenda Aguiar Dos Santos of Brazil in her opening match, before losing to Victoria Francis and Yanet Ursula Sovero Nino of USA and Peru.

“I felt really good about my first match. I wrestled hard and persisted past some issues I had in the match,” said the Brock Wrestler. “My last two matches I was there strength-wise, but maybe not at their technical level yet. This is my first senior international tournament so I’m still working my way up.”

“I’m so fortunate to have this experience and be here representing my country in Ottawa.”

Ioannis Narlidis and Brayden Ambo competed on Saturday morning in Greco-Roman competition. Narlidis of Carleton Wrestling Club fell 8-1 to Lesyan Osvaldo Cousin Otomuro of Jamaica. Ambo, of Western Wrestling Club dropped his two matches to Colombia and Venezuela.

The Pan-American Championships run from March 6 to 9 at the Shaw Centre in downtown Ottawa. Competition resumes on Saturday with Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling.

Canadians in action on Sunday are:
WW 50 kg – Madison Parks
WW 53 kg – Jade Parsons
WW 57 kg – Hannah Taylor
WW 62 kg – Jessica Brouillette
WW 68 kg – Olivia Di Bacco
WW 76 kg – Justina Di Stasio
FS 79 kg – Guseyn Ruslanzada

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