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BroncoWrestling Coach Returns From RussiaMike Young, wrestling coachat Boise State, has just returned from a three-day, 12-nation international wrestling tournament in the Soviet Union with a third place finish in his weight division.The tournament was won by the Soviet Union with the United States placing second. The matches were held in Tbilisi, Georgia. Tbilisi is the capital of the Soviet Republic of Gerogia which is located on the Black Sea some 1,500 miles from Moscow.Young won his first four freestyle wrestling matches and lost his fifth encounter. He explained that under international free-istic concerning their own republics,” he said.The Boise State coach will get another crack at the Russians very soon and this time in the United States. The Russians are sending a team over for four dual meets with American teams and Young will compete in two of the meets.The first meet in which he will compete will be March 17 in Waterloo, Iowa and the second one will be March 20 in Chicago. The Chicago meet will be telecast by ABC television’s Wide World of Sports.Concerning the future of American free-style wrestling Young said that there are 300,000style rules if a wrestler wins by free-style wrestlers in the Soviet decision he gets one point against Union compared with 1,500 in the him and the man he beats rec- United States, eives three points against him. “This type of tournament which It takes six points to be elimin- we just finished is extremely ben-ated from the competition. eficial for American wrestlersHe said that he won all four of because' it gives us so much the matches by decision which experience. We are now planning gave him four elimination points, on taking two trips a year to the When Young lost his fifth match Soviet Union to compete in their it put him out of the running for meets.”the championship in the 141 weight This summer Young will tryoutclass. There were 14 in the 141 for his fourth world team. The division, six pf them from the world championships will be held various republics of the Soviet in Sofia, Bulgaria. After that the Union. next step is, hopefully, a berth“The Russians had the top six on the United States Olympic wrestlers from each of their team in the 1972 Olympics which republics in each weight division will be held -in Munich, West and that really helped them to win Germany, the title,” Young said.Young’s first opponent was from Iran and Young decisioned him 3-.2. His next match was against a Siberian and the last one was against a Georgian which Young lost by a 6-2 decision.“As a team we did well, especially if you take into consideration the short amount of time we had to work out. We were relatively .pleaded, with..the performance of the United States’, team,” he said.Commenting on the trip itself, Young said, “Moscow,Russia was one of the coldest places I have ever been in my life. One night it got down to 45 degrees below zero and would you belive we were told by the 'Russians that this is one of the mildest winters they have had there in years.‘To give you an example of the cold,” he said, “when we were wrestling in Tbilisi the people watching us indoors Were wearing their hats and coats.Young also discussed the attitudes of the Russian people toward the Americans. “There was one time when I was standing on a street corner in Moscow and an elderly’ man came up to me and said in halting English, ‘Are you an American?’ I told him that I was and he said ‘It’s very good to see a real American.’ Then he walked off.“The people .of Tbilisi where we wrestled were all very friendly to us and seemed to really like the Americans. They were more friendly than the people of Moscow. Even when the Americans were wrestling Russians from other Soviet republics, the people from Tbilishi would cheer for the Americans to win. Of course it was different when we were going against their own Georgians.“The people are very national
Newspaper Details
Sandpoint Daily Bee
Sandpoint, Idaho, US
Thu, Mar 11, 1971
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Pikes P.
CO, USA 25 May 2024
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