28 OCT 2000

Anticipation filled Goettge Memorial Fieldhouse at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina as freestyle wrestling started on this third day of competition. Participants from ten different countries began their quests toward the CISM finals all hoping for the opportunity to say they were at one time the best military free-style wrestler in the world.

The wrestling teams all range in size. The smallest team competing, the Brazilian team, consisted of only one person. The largest teams; Turkey, China and The United States consisted of eight wrestlers. Each wrestler was positive that he could take the physical punishment rationed to each person throughout the day.

"My best quality I think is my heart and my work ethic," said Army Spc. Eric Albarracin, who westles in the 54-kilogram weight class for the United States Team. Many wrestlers have two matches in one day, but it's not a problem. "Wrestling earlier today didn't hurt me in the second match. We train hard, I'm in good shape," said Albarracin.

Many interesting matches took place today, but perhaps none more interesting than the match between Germany's Arawat Sabejew, the bronze medalist in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and Turkey's Aydin Polatci. The match was tied up 2-2 until the final seconds when Polatci scored on a takedown.

Major General James Lovelace, the Chief of United States Delegation and Commanding General of U.S. Army Alaska said the bonds between national champions is important and we are seeing more Olympic caliber athletes competing all the time and that is important.

This years' CISM free-style wrestling championship is proving to be one of the most exciting to date. Many of the world's greatest athletes will be competing tomorrow in the final day of competition. The bronze medal competition is scheduled to start tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. and finish at approximately 12:00 p.m. After an intermission the gold and silver medal competition will start at 4:00 p.m. and will finish around 6:00 p.m.

RESULTS OF THE EARLY SESSION

63 Kg
Rafet Elden TUR 10(2:05)
Khac Tai Troung VIE 0

63 Kg
Jeff Beddard USA 4
Vladimir Chamula SVK 1

69 Kg
Brian Van Hoven USA 0
Isa Kale TUR 10(4:11)

69 Kg
George Moustopoulos GRE 1
Dominik Zeh GER 5

85 Kg
Nuri Zengin TUR 10(4:00)
Volker Hirt GER 0

85 Kg
Xiaosheng Fang CHN 7
Pater Lapsansky SVK 0

97 Kg
Kazim Sakiroglu TUR 4 Radovan Valach SVK 1

97 Kg
Mike VanArsdale USA 3
Nikos Kydros GRE 0

103Kg
Roman Meduna SVK LF
Arawat Sabajew GER F0:21

130Kg
Aydin Polatci TUR 12(2:58)
Frank Workman USA 1

54 Kg
Erdine kirbiyik TUR 4
Eric Albarracin USA 1

54 Kg
Van Bien Nguyen VIE LF
Chao Han CHN F5:53

63 Kg
Surigalatu CHN 4
Rafet Ilden TUR 9

63 Kg
Khac Tai Troung VIE 0
Jeff Beddard USA 10(0:49)

76 Kg
Bulent Dagdimir GER F1:20
Ba Xuam Man VIE LF

76 Kg
Joey Clark USA 8
Odysseas Pannidis GRE 3

76 Kg
Salamao Rodrigues BRA 0
Hasan Ergin TUR 11(1:40)

97 Kg
Li Ruicai CHN 9
Kazime Sakiroglu TUR 1

97 Kg
Radovan Valach SVK 0
Mike Van Arsdale USA 4(9:00)

69 Kg
Zhongkui Zhu CHN 5
Brian VanHoven USA 3

69 Kg
Isa Kale TUR 8
George Moustopoulos GRE 0

130Kg
Yu An CHN 5 BR> Roman Meduna SVK 3

130Kg
Arawat Sabejew Ger 2
Aydin Polatci TUR 3(6:50)

RESULTS OF THE LATE SESSION

54 Kg
Erdine Kirbiyik TUR F0:46
Van Bien Nguyen VIE LF

54 Kg
Eric Albarracin USA 2(9:00)
HanChao CHN 1

58 Kg
Tekin Soyer TUR 1
Junyon Liu CHN 6

63 Kg
Vladimir Chamula SVK F5:47
Rafet Ilden TUR LF

63 Kg
Surigalatu CHN 10(1:42)
Khac Tai Truong VIE 0

69 Kg
Dominik Zeh GER F5:35
Brian VanHoven USA LF

69 Kg
Zhongkui Zhu CHN 3
Isa Kale TUR 13(5:34)

76 Kg
Saiyinjiya CHN 2
Bulent Dagdimir GER 4

76 Kg
Odysseas Panidis GRE 0
Hasan Ergin TUR 10(2:01)

85 Kg
Ken Owens USA 6
Nuri Zengin TUR 1

85 Kg
Athanasios Kydros GRE 1
Xiaosheng Fang CHN 5

97 Kg
Nikos Kydros GRE 3
Kazim Sakiroglu TUR 0

97 Kg
Li Ruicai CHN 3
Radovan Valach SVK 0

130 Kg
Frank Workman USA 2
Roman Meduna SVK 6

130 Kg
Yu An CHN 4
Arawat Sabejew GER 11