No grappling in SEA Games

Wrestling Association of the Philippines (WAP) president Alvin Aguilar said the other day he would’ve guaranteed gold medals in grappling if only it was included in the coming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. But he’s not complaining particularly as just last August, wrestling was completely struck out of the SEA Games calendar until it was eventually reinstated after three weeks in limbo.

Aguilar said he was initially pushing for 38 events in wrestling to include Gi and No Gi grappling for men and women and pankration. At the Southeast Asian Wrestling, Grappling and Pankration Championships in San Pablo City last year, Aguilar’s combatants claimed 31 gold medals, including 22 in Gi and No Gi grappling.

Several SEA countries joined the Philippines in lobbying for at least 27 events in wrestling but PHISGOC brought it down to 20 then later to 14, taking out six events in grappling. The final approved events were 11 for men (six Greco-Roman, five freestyle) and three for women (freestyle). The earlier configuration was 10 men and four women but the 53 kg class in women was eliminated and the 72 kg class in men was added.

“I tried to get more slots in because my goal is to help our country win the overall championship and we have to strike now because in wrestling and grappling, we’re 20 years ahead of our SEA neighbors,” said Aguilar.

For a while, PHISGOC seriously considered to include six events in Gi grappling – 58 kg, 62 kg and 66 kg for men and 49 kg, 53 kg and 58 kg for women. Last July, Aguilar accompanied grapplers May Masuda, Justin Ceriola and Aisa Ratcliff to compete in five Opens in the US. The competitions were on weekends so that during the week, the grapplers trained twice a day. In the Washington Open, Masuda took the gold in black belt, Ratcliff the golds in both her weight and absolute divisions and Ceriola the gold in purple belt. Among the world champions whom they trained with were Saulo Ribeiro, Xande Ribeiro, Victor Hugo, Jao Miyao, Paulo Miyao, Murillo Santana, Marcelo Garcia, Lloyd Irvin, Jamil Hill-Taylor and Muhammed Aly.

While in the US, Aguilar was informed that grappling would be removed from the SEA Games. “We went from gym to gym training with world champions, working hard, sparring, competing,” he said. “Suddenly, we were told grappling wouldn’t be included. We all cried.”

More bad news hit Aguilar when he was advised that wrestling would totally be canceled. “While the grapplers were in the US, 13 of our wrestlers were in Russia training,” he said. “When we were told wrestling would be removed, you can imagine how our wrestlers in Russia felt, sacrificing under freezing conditions for almost two months. They also cried when they heard the news.”

Aguilar said the international federation United World Wrestling (UWW) withheld sanction from the SEA Games because of a misunderstanding.  UWW Asia president Daulet Turlykhanov of Kazakhstan sent vice president Kittiposh Suchantabutr of Thailand to Manila to look into the situation and UWW sports director Jean-Daniel Rey later confirmed the decision. “It is clear that we won’t recognize these SEA Games as they never cooperate with us but we think that you should just make the participating countries aware of that chaotic situation,” said Rey. “There are possibilities for athletes to contract the disease (dengue) and they should be warned.” Apparently, Rey reacted to a report that there was a dengue epidemic in the Philippines.

Aguilar appealed to POC president Rep. Bambol Tolentino and PHISGOC COO Tats Suzara to save wrestling as the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore pleaded for reconsideration from UWW. In the end, the problem was resolved and wrestling was back in the schedule. Although grappling was rejected, Aguilar’s consolation is at least, wrestling was rescued from obliteration.

Aguilar’s dream is for the SEA and Asian Games and Olympics to include grappling under wrestling as it should be. The next UWW-sanctioned Asian Wrestling Championships will be held right after the SEA Games here on Dec. 13-16. The competition will be for cadets, juniors, seniors and veterans with Aguilar determined to prove that Filipinos are world-class in different wrestling and grappling events.

“At the moment, we’ve got 27 wrestlers receiving assistance from PSC,” said Aguilar. “We’ve got nine more in the pending list. We really need to expand our pool so we can bring in more talents for every event. It’s difficult to just go with one or two athletes for each event. Where can they get good sparring? In Vietnam, the wrestling pool is up to about 200 and in Thailand, it’s about 100. We’re thankful to PSC and POC for giving us the opportunity to fight for gold in the SEA Games.”