The Malta Wrestling Federation last month took part in the England Wrestling Championships at the Windsor Leisure Centre.
The team was formed by Gary Giordimaina (57kg), Adam Vella (57kg), Nico Zarb (74kg) and Nathaniel Buttigieg D’Ugo (74kg) with Jesmond Giordimaina acting as coach while Abraham Vassallo was referee.
The championships brings together wrestlers from several countries, particularly from Iran, Russia and India who live in England, thus further increasing the level of competition.
For many wrestlers, these championships represented an opportunity to earn a place for this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Gary Giordimaina produced an impressive performance in the 57kg category as he managed to win four bouts to secure the gold medal in the category that featured nine wrestlers.
Giordimaina faced Constantine Neagu, of Romania, in the preliminary round and managed to come out on top through superiority.
In the quarter-finals, he had the better of Iran’s Saeed Saeedi to set up a semi-final showdown with another Iranian wrestler Farshad Raesi where he again prevailed with a pin.
In the final, he was up against Algerian-born Yahia Tehami who was representing England and is looking to earn a place in the Commonwealth Games. Giordimaina came out on top to win the bout on technical superiority.
In the 74kg category, Malta had two representatives among the 20 participating wrestlers.
In the first round, Nico Zarb and Nathaniel Buttigieg lost their bout with Iranian wrestler Farhad Nouri. Zarb and Buttigieg faced each other in the repechage round that would earn them a shot for the bronze medal.
Zarb prevailed and set up a bout with Azrail Borziev but was beaten by the Russian wrestler.
Luck did not favour Adam Vella as he was drawn to face Russian wrestler Erfan Taghizadeh who won the bout and went on to clinch the bronze medal winner in the category that featured 17 wrestlers,
