Miranda wins gold; Tobin, Warren and O'Donnell win silver at the 2003 Henri Deglane Challenge in Nic
<< Back to Articles
John Fuller (USA Wrestling)
12/01/2003
NICE, France - Patricia Miranda (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC) won a gold medal at 55 kg/121 lbs. at the 2003 Henri Deglane Challenge in Nice, France on Nov. 29. Overall, the United States came home with eight medals in all three styles from the event. Miranda, a two-time World silver medalist and the 2003 World Cup gold medalist, pinned Camille Saillard of France to capture the gold medal. Also winning a medal in women's freestyle action was Tela O'Donnell (Colorado Springs, Colo./Dave Schultz WC), won a silver at 63 kg/138.75 lbs. in a one-pool round-robin competition. O'Donnell recorded two technical falls in the tournament. Her only loss was to Aurora Fajardo of Spain by a 7-6 score. Fajardo placed twelfth at the 2003 World Championships. In men's freestyle, Ryan Tobin (Philadelphia, Pa./Dave Schultz WC) won a silver medal at 96 kg/211.5 lbs. Tobin won his first three matches to advance to the finals before losing an 8-5 match to 2003 European Champion and two-time World Cup champion Khadzimurad Gatsalov of Russia. Winning bronze medals in men's freestyle were Jared Frayer (Cambridge, Mass./Dave Schultz WC) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs., Joe Heskett (Grover Beach, Calif./Gator WC) at 74 kg/163 lbs. and Lee Fullhart (Colorado Springs, Colo./Gator WC) at 84 kg/185 lbs. Frayer pinned Pablo Pintos of Spain in the bronze-medal match. Heskett won three of his four matches. His only loss was to eventual silver medalist Sergey Vitkovskcsy of Russia. Fullhart lost a close 4-3 semifinal match to Yusup Abdusalamov of Tajikistan before defeating Simon Garcia of Spain 12-2 in the bronze-medal match. Joe Warren (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) won a silver medal in Greco-Roman at 60 kg/132 lbs. Warren lost by a fall to 2003 World Cup bronze medalist Alexei Shevtsov of Russia. Also capturing a medal in Greco-Roman was Heath Sims (Huntington Beach, Calif./Dave Schultz WC), who won a bronze at 74 kg/163 lbs. After dominating his pool, Sims lost a semifinal match to Mikhail Ivanchenko of Russia, the 2003 World Cup and 2003 CISM Military World Championships gold medalist. In the bronze-medal match, Sims defeated Maxym Podolsky of Ukraine 3-2.