Women's Day One

Greetings all,
Well... an up and down afternoon. Some exciting matches again.
Jessie started the day with Poland and as expected got pulled into a bit of a tactical match. Not a lot of offense in the first period which ended 0-0, the Polaish athlete was awarded the clinche and finished the round with the point. Second round Jessie di a better job of picking up the activity and hit a good single, the ensuing scramble was pretty tough and exciting jessie levered the Polish off of the mat and up to the standing position, but unfortunately got in a bit of a rush and ended up going back down to the mat underneath her opponent. the round ended 0-0 again, and AGAIN the Polish girl was awarded the clinche. Bad luck for Jessie. what can I say, that is the hard part of wrestling with these rules... I would love to see an actual point put on the board to decide the match but..... In the next round the polish girl lost to the North korean and elliminated Jessie from the tournament.

Lindsay Started off the morning with two three round matches. In her first match against China she counter attacked her opponent successfully to her back to win the first round. The second round held less action and no real good offensive positions. The Chinese athlete was awarded a (reallly questionable) one point effort throw to win the round late. After a major effort to refoccus Linds in the second period she beared down and hit a nice leg attack and converted it right to back points and the eventual fall! Glad to see Linds go out and take control and hit her offense the way i know she can!
She followed up with a match that put a huge smile on my face! A three round decision over japan. In the first round she did a great job reacting to the japanese athletes right side shot but failed to capitalize where she could have. In round two and three Linds took some chances and put the japanese Wrestler on her back late in both rounds. Two times Linds took a shot and came up to her feet off of the ensuing scramble and arm threw the japanese girl. I really thought she had the fall in round two but to Lindsays credit she got it done the hard way. Late in the third round... A tribute to her toughenss and conditioning.
A pretty short turn around later Linds found herself wrestling the British girl in the Quarter finals. While she wrestled well against the open moving style of the asian wrestlers she got pulled into a control match here. In the first round she stood up too high and was head lock thrown to here back and held, to start the match down 4-0. Unfortunately that is that was enough to throw Lindsays confidence (or focus) off base. In the second round she was hit on a 2on1 firemans and was flipping again with the trapped arm for an additional two points. She walked off of the mat very frustrated with the match. In the semi finals the british girl lost to the Azerbijian wrestler (actually her cousin), both of them originally from the ukraine.

Both of our girls are definately capable of being successful at this tournament. We have to continue to improve at impossing our style of wrestling on our opponents no matter what their style might be. The worlds have begun, and each match has to be a physical and mental battle. Start to finish plain and simple. Our girls can be successful against the best...
Sorry for the run on sentences...

Evans first match was while Rushton was wrestling so I cant comment too much. He lost a very close decision to Greece. the last round ended 6-6. Coach Abdou was not at all happy with the key call in the round where evans opponent was awarded 3 and Evan 2 on a Double Leg/Body lock Sequence. Evan double his opponent straight to his back and was carried through by the greek wrestler. Abdou felt it was clearly MacDonalds 3 point action and it ultimately decided the round on the tie.

Tomorrows action,

55kg Tonya has Bilenska of Poland first match tomorrow. I dont want to underestimate her but Tonya should be a very tough draw for her. We have seen her quite a few times.
59kg Katie has Nigeria first match tomorrow, I have some footage from the African championships so we will take a look. Bronze medalist at the African Championships.
63kg Justine has Dominican Republic to start the tournament. Bronze medalist at the Pan American Championships. We will take a look at her 2009 Pan Am Tournament tonight.