This is a relatively new tournament with weight categories and age groups for all competitors and it was selected by Coach Barry Pollin to give the wrestlers an opportunity to really test their skills and build confidence before participating in the next major events - that is, the Northern Ireland Closed Championships, Londonderry and the Irish Open in Dublin.

Gracious is a recent recipient of a Mary Peters Trust Award. She has a background in judo, training with the highly successful Causeway Judo Club, and narrowly lost her first contest to a more experienced girl, Shannon Hawke, from the current GB squad.

Even though her opponent was a couple of years older, the 12-year-old was still able to demonstrate that the gap between them is extremely narrow. Gracious then went on to win her next contest, sweeping aside her opponent without any difficulty and was fit to claim a silver medal by the end of the day.

Stewart is a couple of years older and also has a background in judo but this was his first freestyle competition and with limited experience he acquitted himself extremely well, narrowly losing in the semi final to the current British champion, Justin Haughey. Stewart finished with a bronze medal after pushing all of his opponents to the limit.

Ben Pollin is the youngest of the group and wrestled extremely well, successfully managing to retain the Wigan and Leigh title with a very comfortable win in the final, which lasted just under a minute.

Club coach, Mohammad Ali, was delighted by the performance and said: "There is real progress here and all our athletes have shown that they are a match for any British wrestler. Next year, I fully expect them to be pushing hard for places on the GB Squad and with a lot of hard work this target is achievable."

Freestyle Wrestling is an Olympic and Commonwealth Games discipline and today it is probably one of the fastest growing sports in Northern Ireland.

The sport is fully regulated and the Governing Body, the Northern Ireland Wrestling Association, is working in partnership with Derry City Council and Sport NI to develop talent in this area.
Please visit www.niwrestling.org for further detail.