May 8, 2000
May 08 2000

This past weekend I witnessed an impeccable performance! More on that in a minute. But first, when you have great coaches, you can rest assured that the training programs will pay off. The week before nationals was very low key. We were given a lot of time to work on what we wanted to perfect before the Nationals. We were constantly reminded by Mike and Dave to approach practices with a competition frame of mind. We did and the rest is history. On a personal level, I did a lot of technique in the days leading up to the Senior National Championships which helped prepare me well.

The Burnaby Mountain Wrestling Team (which I'm proud to be a member of) once again showed why it is the envy of other clubs in Canada. The team cleaned house at the Senior National Championships this past weekend. We won both the men's and women's team and provincial titles. We also had five individual titles in the men category: Nick Ogoalah (76 kg), outstanding wrestler, Nasir Lal (63 kg ), the dynamite himself (69 kg), Justin Abdou (85 kg) and Yogi Johal (130 kg). We also collected some silver as well. My training partner, Steve Rose claimed silver at 69 kg and Buljit Sull was second at 130 kg.

The women also cleaned up winning four of six weight classes. Jennifer Ryz won the 56 kg class and was named the outstanding wrestler for her win over the current World Silver medalist Erica Sharp, Lindzay Belisle won the 51 kg class, Shannon Samler the 68 kg class, and Carol Huynh, the 46 kg division. By all standards, the results were incredible.

The team get back to business on wednesday, when we will again take it to each other in practice scrimmages before the men go to Cali Columbia for the final qualifying tournament of the Olympics. Judging from what I saw over the weekend, we are going to qualify a lot of people; that I can proudly say. I went to the Senior National Tournament to wrestle on my own terms, "to do unto others as I would want to do unto them." Unfortunately, I did not move as well as I would have wanted in the semi finals, but I was still impressed with the way I wrestled. Like the "thoughtful boy" I will employ one step at a time". My aim is to explode when the time is right, at the biggest stage, the Olympics. I have a feeling that this Dynamite might be well primed to blow people away when the time is ripe.

Keep sweating... Daniel (Dynamite) Igali.