Summary of Gold Coast 2018 - Wrestling

Wales take the Home Nation Wrestling Gold Coast honours with 2x medals from 2x athletes and one of those a Silver.

Congratulations to Kane Charig on his 65kg Silver and to Curtis Dodge on his 74kg Bronze and Alan Jones as Coach and Sue Jones as Team Leader.

England were next up with 3x Bronze medals and with the only female medallist Georgina Nelthorpe.

Congratulations to Georgina (76kg), Charlie Bowling (65kg) and Syerus Eslami (86kg).

Wales and England also provided Home Nations’ Referees, Ian Wiggett and Richard Phillips.

Role of Honour:

Wales
Silver	65kg	Kane Charig
Bronze	74kg	Curtis Dodge
England
Bronze	65kg 76kg 86kg	Charlie Bowling Georgina Nelthorpe Syerus Eslami

Other athletes representing their Home Nations were:

ENG: George Ramm57kg;Leon Rattigan97kg
NIR: Sarah McDaid57kg
SCO: Viorel Etko57kg;Ross Connelly57kg;Alex Gladkov74kg;Joe Hendry97kg

The athletes were supported by numerous support staff, some paid and some unpaid and especial thanks to those who gave up significant time made significant sacrifices to be with the athletes in Australia.

Rob Hamilton, working on the staff of Commonwealth Games England as physio, supported the England Wrestling Team. Philip Roberts, Danny Fisher and Nathaniel Brown travelled to Gold Coast as Training Partners for the England Team.

Wales
Alan Jones	National Coach
Sue Jones	Team Leader
Ian Wiggett	Referee
England
Eddy Kavanagh	Team Leader
Jatinder Rakhra	Assistant Team Leader
Anatolii Kharytoniuk	National Coach
Richard Phillips	Referee
Scotland
Mike Wallace	Team Leader
Volodymyr Gladkov	National
Northern Ireland
Barry Pollin	Coach/Team Leader

A special mention should also be made of Steven and Lee Mckeown.

They put themselves forward as volunteers. They were selected and made the trip to Australia as official Gold Coast volunteers.

The organisation of the wrestling events was very slick.

During the Games the Commonwealth Wrestling Committee came into being.

At a meeting on the third day of wrestling, a constitution was agreed and a Board of Directors, Secretary General and Members were elected (Link to report). Ian Wiggett was elected as Secretary General of this United World Wrestling-recognised Committee. This committee takes its place beside other specialised committes such as the Mediterranean Nations Committee.

Jem Lawson, BWA Chair, attended the meeting and has taken on the task of incorporating amendments to the Constitution.

The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games officially came to a close on Sunday 15th April. Kate Ceberano, Guy Sebastian, Deborah Conway, Dami Im, Samantha Jade, Katie Noonan, Anthony Callea, the Veronicas finished the closing ceremony.

Overall the Home Nations wrestling participants and support staff brought back five medals and plenty of memories to last a lifetime.

There was a glimpse of the future with many of the Home Nations’ next generation of athletes coming to the fore as all now prepare to welcome the Commonwealth Games to Birmingham in 2022.

Birmingham took advantage of the “Official England Homecoming” by being hosts to the homecoming parade and taking the opportunity to showcase all the sports that will be on the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Programme.

New Club Development Manager Andreas Michaelas and Trevor Hoskins coordinated the community-based activities alongside the other sports, assisted by Impact Wrestling Club.