Weicker captures bronze, record setting fourth medal
BUDAPEST, Hungary – Diana Weicker won an emotional bronze medal match at the 2018 Senior World Championships.
Weicker, of Kentville, N.S., defeated Zhuldyz Eshimova of Kazakhstan 3-2 in the bout for bronze. The medal was the fourth for Canada, the most the team has ever captured at a world championship.
“I can’t describe it,” said Weicker. “It just all finally pays off, for everything you do. I put the work in over years and years and just didn’t know that there is an outcome.”
Weicker, 29, is a mother of two and a registered nurse.
“It doesn’t matter how much else I have on the go, it doesn’t matter how spread thin I am, I can do anything and it feels so good to know all the potential is there too. I can keep going, it feels good.”
The medal capped off the most successful world championships for a Canadian women’s team. On Wednesday, Justina Di Stasio won gold, Danielle Lappage captured silver, and Erica Wieve took home bronze.
“It’s so inspiring,” Weicker said of her teammates. “There are so many girls who are so good and we are all like a unit together and its fun. It makes it so much more of a family and we are all there for each other no matter what. Its just so inspiring to have so many good girls in one spot.”
Weicker finished 12th at her first world championship in 2017. An emotional Weicker explained what the medal means for her moving forward.
“My goals just keep going up. I’m just so inspired that I can achieve even more. I want an Olympic medal, I want the Olympic gold, I want it all.”
Earlier in the day, Alexandria Town of Scarborough, Ont., wrestled in the 57 kg repechage in an attempt to qualify for the bronze medal match. She led 9-4 before Kateryna Zhydachevska of Russia caught Town in a head and arm lock, and pinned Town to the mat.
This is Town’s first Senior World Championships.
“I feel so privileged to be here,” said Town. “I feel like I deserved everything single bit of it and I’m so excited to continue from here.”
The World Championships resume tomorrow with Greco-Roman wrestling. Philip Barreiro will be representing Canada at 87 kg.
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