On Sunday, September 24th the mens and womens freestyle competition was underway with Asia and Oceania countries competing in the Ashgabat 2017 5th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games. The wrestling competition was held at the Main Indoor Arena. Teams from Oceania included Australia, American Samoa, FSM, Guam, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau. There were a total 14 athletes competing just on the 1st day of the competition. Palau had 2 out of 4 wrestlers that competed on day one.
[restrict]
In the mens – freestyle 65kg weight division, Jarvis Blesam Tarkong competed against Bajrang of India. Bajrang is currently the gold medalist at the Asian Wrestling Championships that was held at Delhi,
India. During the 1st period, Blesam came out strong and tried to score on his opponent with a head and arm roll, but Bajrang countered and was the first to score 2 points on the ground. Bajrang would earn more points on the ground by capturing the leg and rolling Blesam, but Blesam countered with a reversal to score 1 point. Blesam shot in on a single leg takedown, but the more experienced Bajrang defended well earning 2 more points by going behind Blesam on the ground. The official would bring them back to their standing position and Blesam would go on the offensive by shooting a single leg takedown but Bajrang defended well into the 2nd period of the match. Eventually, Blesam wrestled at his best but Bajrang dominated the match by gaining a total of 12 – 1 to win the match while Blesam would earn only 1 point against the Bajrang. Later that day, Blesam then competed in the repechage against Farzad Amouzadkhalili of Iran but lost with Iran proving to be a very tough opponent. Bajran would go on to defeat all his opponents before winning the gold medal match against Daichi Takatani of Japan. Turkmenistine and Iran won bronze medals. Overall, Blesam eventually ranked 12 out of 16 wrestlers.
In the mens –freestyle 74kg weight division, Skarley Renguul wrestled Hossein Elyasi Chamazkoti of Iran. Aside from the Oceania Championships this year, this would be Skarley’s first major international tournament. Hossein would dominate the match against Renguul with a 10-0. Renguul would go on to compete in the repechage match against Menghejigan of China but lose the match. Chamazkoti would go on to win the silver medal while Bekzod Abdurakhmonov of Uzbekistan would win the gold medal match. Renguul ranked 21st overall. Day 1 of the competition proved to be very tough overall for all the Oceania countries with Asia dominating each and every match. As for Palau, the competition was very tough and good because our athletes had the opportunity to compete at a higher level and this is what we actually need especially if we trained hard and expect to compete in the Olympics.
Today, Septmber 25th, the Oceania will have about 14 athletes competing on day 2 of the freestyle competition. Leading the team for Palau will be Flo Temengil(Florian Skilang Temengil) in the mensfreestyle 125kg and Cristian Nicolescu (Cristian Etpison Nicolescu) in the mens-freestyle 61kg weight class.
On the final day of the games, September 26th, will be Greco Roman and all 3 athletes, Blesam Tarkong, Cristian Nicolescu and Skarley Renguul will compete once again. Source: Palau Wrestling Federation[/restrict]