Wrestling: Club places third in country

Mount Maunganui club wrestler Tayla Ford (right) in action during last year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. Photo / File

The Mount Maunganui Wrestling Club has a busy nine months of competition coming up.

It began on Queens Birthday weekend when the club took part in the Olympic Wrestling NZ Club Championships held in Te Awamutu.

Mount Maunganui finished in a highly-creditable third place, behind the Hamilton Hawks and hosts Te Awamutu YMI, to lay down the challenge to clubs and athletes around the country.

Mount Maunganui (and New Zealand coach) Mark Grayling was well pleased with the overall performance and one young talent in particular.

"While I was very happy with our team's results, the standout for me was 9-year-old Seth Burgess who won the under-10 competition from a field of four very promising youngsters," Grayling said.

"It was also the first time that many supporters got to see Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Tayla Ford compete live, wrestling now for Mount Maunganui, after recently shifting north from Christchurch."

August will be a huge month for the Mount Maunganui club as they host the Bay of Plenty Championships before the pinnacle event on every Olympic-style wrestler's calendar, the WNZ National Wrestling Championships.

Both events will be held at Tauranga's QEII Memorial Hall, with the Bay of Plenty tournament on August 2 prior to the national championships on August 28-29.

Before the nationals, two elite Mount Maunganui wrestlers in Ford and Caylen Greenwood will wear the New Zealand uniform at the Australian Cup at the AIS in Canberra during July 2015.

While Ford is focused upon representing her country at the 2016 Olympics, Greenwood will be building his international experience, hoping to qualify for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast.

The first opportunity for wrestlers to qualify for the Olympics is at the world championships in Las Vegas in September, where the top six in each weight division are given Olympic entry.

Next opportunity will be for the senior gold medallists at the national championships in Tauranga, who will qualify for the Oceania Championships to be held in Hamilton next March.

From there, the Oceania champions will compete at the Oceania/Africa Olympic qualification tournament in Algeria, where the top two from each weight division will book an Olympic berth.