Athlete quotes from Session 1 of the World Freestyle Championships
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John Fuller (USA Wrestling)
09/12/2003
Men's 55 kg/121 lbs. - Stephen Abas dec. Mavlet Batirov (Russia), 4-2, ot "I got a little tired out there. Usually my first match is like that. I'll get better as the tournament goes on." "In my next match, I just need to make sure and move. Get my offense going." Men's 60 kg/132 lbs. - Eric Guerrero dec. Mohammad Talaei (Iran), 3-1, ot "The clinch was the right call. I thought I won the match before that, though. I thought I took him down and exposed him earlier." "He's a World Champion. Every win at this tournament is a big win." Men's 74 kg/163 lbs. - Joe Williams dec. Ivan Diaconu (Moldova), 6-0 "It's nice to get a good first blow in and try to stay in motion." "This is in our own backyard. We've been preparing for this tournament for a couple of years, so we're giving it our all." "When you are overseas, you don't hear (the crowd) too well, but being in here, it is definitely a factor." Men's 84 kg/185 lbs. - Cael Sanderson dec. Terro Perkkio (Finland), 4-0 "This is the World Championships. You just got to go win. It doesn't matter what the score is." Men's 96 kg/211.5 lbs. - Daniel Cormier dec. Hakan Koc (Turkey), 9-3 "I was being aggressive, but also trying to be safe. At the end, he scored when he stepped underneath me." "I feel like I wrestled pretty hard. I am satisfied with my first match." Women's 48 kg/105.5 lbs. - Patricia Miranda dec. Lyndsay Belisle (Canada), 3-1 "This is one of the reasons that I don't look at outcomes. It's not the outcome of the match, but how I wrestled." "I could have done some things different. I was changing my level a little bit, but I wasn't getting my opponent to move. That is something I need to work on in my next match." Women's 51 kg/112.25 lbs. - Jenny Wong dec. Yura Gandolgor (Mongolia), 5-0 "I would have liked to have gotten my offense off a little bit, but I am happy to come out with the win." "It's chaotic coming into this arena, but Trish (Saunders) just wanted me to stay calm going in and it really helped." Women's 55 kg/121 lbs. - Tina George dec. Julieta Okot (Bulgaria), 9-3 "She's one of my training partners in Colorado Springs. We knew each other very well. I had to really put things in perspective when I found out she was my first match and realize that one of us wants to make the finals and I want it to be me." Women's 59 kg/130 lbs. - Sally Roberts pinned Aikaterina-Ko Tsimpanakou (Greece), 2:20 "I wasn't nervous at all. I needed to do a little moving to get pumped up. It took me about 30 seconds to get going out there." "I just had a good feel for her. I just knew to take her to her back." "I'm on fire. This is the greatest feeling I have ever had." Women's 63 kg/138.75 lbs. - Sara McMann pinned Sara Eriksson (Sweden), 5:38 "She's such a tough competitor. I thought it was going to be a six-minute match." "Terry (Steiner) and I were working on this match months ago. We actually have been preparing for this match for a year." "I've definitely shown that I'm a long ways from where I was last year." Women's 67 kg/147.5 lbs. - Kristie Marano pinned Jodeen Marie MacGregor (New Zealand), 2:18 "It was nice to get the first one out of the way. I felt the pressure a little bit coming out there, but I just wrestled and it all went away." "Wrestling here is different. I flipped out the first time everybody started chanting 'USA'. It's really motivating." Women's 72 kg/158.5 lbs. - Toccara Montgomery dec. Zarife Yildirim (Turkey), 7-0 "This feels like any other tournament because I didn't have to travel for this one. This atmosphere makes you want to wrestled hard and give your all."