Quebec open deemed a wrestling success

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI



The past six months have not been the best of times for Jay Bradbury, the longtime head coach of the Pierrefonds-based Riverdale Wrestling Club.

The Roxboro resident, who has devoted the better part of the past 40 years trying to keep West Island youngsters off the streets and out of trouble by transforming their aggression into a positive through amateur wrestling, underwent open heart surgery last May. A valve was repaired, and recovery process from the operation — deemed a success — has not been the fastest in the world. As a result, he has often been away from the club in recent months, with assistants Nicholas Pirocacos and Andy Cowell taking up most of the coaching duties.

One had to know however, despite orders from his doctor and wife to take things easy, nobody was going to stop Bradbury from organizing his 26th annual Quebec Open Tournament, which unfolded Saturday at Riverdale High School.

“They wanted me to stay away, but when I’m at the gym, I feel better,� said Bradbury. “It energizes me to fight the fight.�

When all was said and done, Bradbury had to be feeling quite chipper about the latest edition of the Open, which featured 163 participants from 16 Quebec and Ontario clubs, including a healthy number of area wrestlers doing their thing for Riverdale Wrestling Club as well as John Rennie and Beaconsfield high schools. Divisions included under-12 peewee girls and boys, 13-14 bantams, 15-18 cadet-juveniles a novice category for those under-18 with no prior experience wrestling at this level and a category for women aged 13 to 18.

“It was encouraging to see the John Rennie kids,� said Bradbury. “Even though some actually competed for Inter-Concordia Wrestling Club which is based out of the Claude Robillard Centre. The six from Beaconsfield was encouraging as well. The high schools have been shut down three times in the past five years because of strikes. You have to develop kids to bring them to these meets, and the coaches there have done a good job.�

As did Derek Lanni, Joel Lanni and Kevin Renshaw, three of those John Rennie students wrestling for Inter-Concordia who competed in the cadet-juvenile division. Derek Lanni captured gold in the 76-kilogram class Joel Lanni silver in the 63-kilogram class while Renshaw captured bronze in the 76-kilogram class. Riverdale’s Kris Pirocacos won silver in the 69-kilogram class.

Renshaw’s bronze-medal performance was arguably one of the most exciting matches of the entire tournament. He appeared to be injured during the tussle, but decided against calling out to the referee for help before neck bridging out of a pinned position to get the pin.

“He (Renshaw) is an extremely powerful wrestler who likes to pick up his opponent and throw him,� said John Rennie head coach Kinsella. “I myself thought he was injured, but he turned out to be all right. He has an extremely strong neck which always helps.�

Riverdale’s Anthony Pirocacos and Kevin Gampel didn’t require any assistance in the bantam boys’ division. Each won silver respectively in the 40- and 52-kilogram class while Beaconsfield’s Emmanuelle Cifuentes earned silver in the 65-kilogram class.

In novice boys, Riverdale’s Ryan Estwick captured gold in the 59-kilogram class while Beaconsfield’s Justin Adam in the 59-kilogram class, John Rennie’s Axel Capparos in the 51-kilogram class, John Rennie’s John Graham in the 64-kilogram class, Beaconsfield’s Jesse Langlois in the 70-kilogram class and John Rennie’s Domenic Kiss in the 76-kilogram class won silver. Beaconsfield’s Sean Giudice in the 44-kilogram class, John Rennie’s Calvin Brett in the 51-kilogram class, Matt Richard in the 70-kilogram class and Beaconsfield’s Alexandre Lauzon in the 76-kilogram class earned bronze medals.

In the girls’ 13-18 category, John Rennie’s Laura Bryan and Kelsey Martin captured silver respectively in the 47- and 79-kilogram classes while in peewee girls Riverdale’s Lana Gampel won silver in the 37-kilogram class. Finally in peewee boys, Riverdale’s Matthew Carroll and Angus Cowell won gold respectively in the 25- and 56-kilogram classes while Jing Eng-Michel captured silver in the 30-kilometre class.

Extra: Canadian Olympic wrestler Guivi Sissaouri was on hand at the meet. The silver-medal winner at the 1996 Games in Atlanta was coaching a team from Beurling Academy in LaSalle.