Southern Regional Training started for 2011 with Junior and Senior sessions led by England Development Coach Anatolii Kharytoniuk.

Coaches brought their chosen wrestlers from Slough, Littlehampton & Rustington, Lewisham, Kensington and Bristol for the training session at London Shootfighters, Park Royal, London.

John Savage, secretary of the Southern Region said “This excellent session is just the beginning and we should continue to test for the best format. The next stage might be monthly sessions and we might then progress to more frequent, even weekly, when we have identified the wrestlers with good potential.”

Said Anatolii, “It was good to meet so many enthusiastic wrestlers and I look forward to working with them in the future”

The session was made possible by Paul Ivens who generously made his club available for the sessions free of charge. Paul commented “I am pleased to help and it was great to meet so many friendly wrestlers.”

London Shootfighters has great facilities for MMA, Thai Boxing, Grappling and MMA as well as a 10×10 wrestling mat. It is located on the western edge of London, making it a great compromise destination for London-based clubs, Slough and those coming from further afield such as Bristol and Littlehampton & Rustington.

Anatolii has now added the Southern Region to sessions delivered in Bolton for North and Manchester for the Midlands, as well as assisting in the preparation of the England Commonwealth Team for Delhi. That team of ten brought home four medals including the first wrestling gold since 1986. In addition, Anatolii, together with Volodymyr Gladcow from the Scottish High Performance Team, jointly leads the National Talent Squad, which enables his overview of England’s developing talent.

Thanks to Sport England for enabling Anatolii to be available to England, in addition to their financial support for projects such as the White Award and gaining UK Coaching Certificate Accreditation for the Wrestling Coaching Levels.