Chanel shines at wrestling champs

Chanel College made a huge impact at the New Zealand secondary schools wrestling championships held at Hamilton over Queen's Birthday weekend.
Adam Saunders won the gold medal in the 46kg to 50kg class for boys aged 15yrs and under, Bradley Legge was a silver medallist in the 85kg to 97kg class for boys aged 15yrs and over and Teina Hullena reached the semi-finals of the 63kg to 69kg class for boys aged 15years and under.
And the icing on the cake came when Saunders and Legge were later named in a New Zealand secondary schools squad to fight at a tournament in Australia in 2006.
Saunders was undefeated in his four bouts at the Hamilton event and ,in all but one of his fights, managed to pin his opponent inside the allocated three rounds.
Legge's effort was especially notable because he was attending his first tournament and there was no disgrace in defeat for Hullena who contested the biggest division at the championships.
After losing his first round fight Hullena ended up second in his pool and in order to advance to the semi-finals he had to beat the other two second placegetters in his division. This he managed to do and he then lost his semi-final bout, being relegated to fourth overall without being given the chance to compete against the other losing semi-finalist.
Making the performance of the Chanel trio even more impressive was that fact that because there are only a small number of competitive wrestlers in the Wairarapa their preparation was limited. For instance they train just once a week under the guidance of former Olympian Grant Parker, who travels over from Wellington to provide expert tuition. Many of their rivals at Hamilton train up to five times per week.
Credit must also go club volunteers such as Wayne Thurston and Mark Lovett-both nationally-ranked referees- who have done much to keep wrestling alive in the Wairarapa.
Their efforts in maintaining a facility at Featherston as well as taking on such time-consuming tasks as fund raising, seeking sponsorship,organising tourneys and taking local competitors to other events outside the district are ensuring the sport's survival here.