Young wrestlers compete in Bloemfontein
Brakpan Wrestling Club had seven youth wrestlers and one junior wrestler who participated in the South Africa Junior and Youth Championships, in Bloemfontein, on September 27 and 28.
The youth team consists of u-13 and u-15 school boys who qualified for the events and who were picked by the Eastern Gauteng Wrestling Federation to participate in Bloemfontein.
These wrestlers are KC van Baalen, Ruben van den Berg, Ondrej Dvoulety, Brandon Pienaar, Shaun Emmenis, Michael Amiras and Matthew Bartlett.
The competition at the championships was extremely tough and Brakpan Wrestling Club managed to bring home only two medals.
Pienaar won a silver medal in the u-13 59kg to 63kg category, while Bartlett took his fourth consecutive youth medal, when he won the u-15 50kg to 54kg category.
This put Bartlett in contention to win a prestigious and coveted fifth consecutive Youth SA title, next year, in his final year as a youth wrestler.
This is a goal and milestone that not many South African wrestlers ever reach.
Martin Erasmus was Brakpan Wrestling Club’s only hope in the Junior Championship and, once again, he did not disappoint.
Erasmus managed to win an astonishing 19th career SA Championship medal when he took gold in the Junior 84kg to 96kg division.
As the season draws to a close, the club has only a few activities left for 2013, one of which is the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships that will be held in Kempton Park, from December 4 to 8.
The club will be practising during the holiday season, to prepare the wrestlers for a very busy 2014.
