The 2008 Oceania Championships was held at the Australia Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra, Australia on Saturday, February 09, 2008. Palau sent three (3) wrestlers to include Elgin Elwais, Franson Giboons, Florian Skilang Temengil along with Coach Young Ho, Ko and John Tarkong Jr. After three days of training and cutting weight in Australia, the wrestlers competed in freestyle on the first day and greco roman on the second today. Since the Oceania Championships is an Olympic Qualifying Event for Freestyle, Greco Roman and Female Wrestling, 7 places were decided by the Oceania Executive Committee and FILA after the competitions and after the Doping Tests were completed for all Gold Medalists and sent to FILA.
The first day of competitions were in the Freestyle competitions. Elgin Elwais wrestled Farzad Tarasm of Australia in the Mens Senior Freestyle 55kg weight class and lost but came back on the second day of Greco to win the gold and was selected out of the 7 places.
Australia won six gold medals on the first day but it was Florian Skilang Temengil who competed in the 120 kg freestyle who became the only pacific islander to win a gold. Skilang was the other Palauan wrestlers to qualify for one of the spots. Both Elgin and Skilang were both selected and approved by FILA to the Olympic Games.
Franson won silver in the greco roman and had a chance of winning but lost to Australia.
Last Modified on 06/03/2008 21:17