Erica Wiebe, the reigning Olympic champion in the 76 kg category, clinched the gold medal at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series tournament on Thursday evening.

After a difficult 2019 season on the wrestling mat, Wiebe started the Olympic year with a perfect race in Rome, Italy. Wiebe competed against Chinese Zhou Quian in the final, winning the gold 10-0.

To reach the final, Wiebe defeated Venezuelan Andrimar Daniela Lazaro Diaz, German Aline Rotter Focken and the Vasilisa Marzaliuk of Belarus.

Not a bad start to 2020 💪
🥇🥉🥉#WrestleRome pic.twitter.com/tmgoX2Z6tl

— Wrestling Canada Lutte (@WrestlingCanada) January 16, 2020

Just before the holidays, the Rio 2016 gold medalist had kept her dream of participating at Tokyo 2020 alive by defeating her rival Justina Di Stasio in the final of the Canadian Wrestling Trials.

Wiebe will have the chance to book her ticket to Tokyo at the continental Olympic qualification tournament held in Ottawa in March.

Also in action was 2016 Olympian Danielle Lappage in the under 68 kg category after going through the repechage. She defeated India’s Divya Kakran 12-2 for the bronze.

Canada’s final wrestler in medal contention in the repechage was current 57kg world champion and Tokyo 2020 Olympic hopeful Linda Morais. She won the bronze in a landslide 10-0 to American Jenna Burkert.

Full results are available here.

Courtesy of Olympic.ca