Abbotsford wrestlers excelled at the cadet (age 15-16) and juvenile (age 17-18) national championships in Guelph, Ont. last weekend, and an all-Abby clash in a gold medal match was among the many highlights.
Justin Gill, a Rick Hansen Secondary senior, met W.J. Mouat student Amrit Benning in the 69-kilogram freestyle final in the juvenile division, with Gill emerging victorious by a 12-2 score. Benning bounced back to win gold in the Greco-Roman discipline, though.
Other local standouts included double gold medalists Nishan Randhawa and Navdeep Toor. Randhawa won the juvenile men's 85 kg freestyle and also emerged victorious in the FILA cadet trials, which decides priority access for national team wrestling assignments over the summer.
Toor matched that feat by winning gold in the 46 kg cadet freestyle and the FILA trials.
Other podium finishes came from Devin Purewal (bronze, juvenile boys 76 kg; gold, Greco-Roman), Arshdeep Gurm (bronze, cadet boys 76 kg; gold, FILA cadet trials), Navdeep Dhillon (gold, cadet boys 54 kg), Mickey Khehira (gold, 85 kg, FILA cadet Greco-Roman trials) and Pawandeep Khinda (silver, cadet boys 115 kg).
Top-five results were registered by Eknoor Bajwa (fourth, cadet boys 50 kg), Gagan Malay (fourth, cadet girls 49 kg), Davinder Gill (fifth, cadet boys 54 kg) and Pavan Sangha (fifth, cadet boys 50 kg).