Wrestling Recap

A long discussion of SA wrestling would be frustrating for me to write and boring for you to read, so here's a short summary...

My dream of representing South Africa died a quick and gut-wrenching death. (Pun alert: a gut wrench is a painful wrestling move.) I wrestled okay but not great, and the competiton was tough. National team trials are, I suppose... I placed 7th at 84 kg. My teammate and defending champ won the tournament.

Match 1: lost 0-2, 0-6 to the Jr. Commomwealth champion. A very frustrating match, because no less than 4 points awarded were highly questionable, a combination of differences between South African and Canadian officiating and outright bias.

Match 2: Won 6-1, 5-2. A good match against a tough opponent. I scored 2 massive double leg takedowns and was in control most of the match.

Match 3: lost by pin trailing 4-2. I wrestled well, tried to score in a wierd scramble with seconds left and got caught on my back. Getting pinnned sucks.


On a 20 hour (one way) drive with 14 people crammed into a 12-seat van, I also got to experience true Afrikaaner (white South African of Dutch ancestry) culture. They are a fun people, if you ignore the odd shockingly racist comment. (Some, but by no means all, Afrikaaners still hang onto apartheid-era beliefs.) The Afrikaaners are really the ultimate rednecks. They have big, patriachal families that go to church on Sundays and pray before tournaments. They like meat and beer and sports (especially rugby) and wildlife and fighting. In fact, much of our drive was spent alternately being amused and irritated by the 2 lightweights in the back, who entertained themselves by annoying each other. This repeatedly cumulated in fistfights. These are grown men, mind you...

Anyway, I have big plans for my school project, I may have found a new place to stay, and just got invited to go ocean fishing this Sunday but now I am very hungry and will report on the happy stuff once it all falls into place.