*Master John Townsley's*
Team USA Karate & Pankration
World Champions
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US PANKRATION TEAM WINS BIG
IN FILA WORLD WRESTLING GAMES
2 Gold, 5 Silver, and a Bronze come back to US
The United States Pankration Team attended the FILA World Wrestling Games in Antalya , Turkey held September 7 th -9th, 2007. FILA (Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées), the organization that oversees Wrestling in the Olympic Games, sponsored the World Wrestling Games which consisted of styles that are not currently included in the Olympic program. This year, the ancient Olympic Greek Sport of Pankration Athlima was included in the games for the first time. This event represented the official World Championships for each of the styles involved. The Games were enhanced by demonstrations of belt wrestling, Kourash and Sumo.
Pankration Athlima is an ancient Olympic Greek Sport that combines styles including Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Boxing, Wrestling, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, Sumo and Grappling. Pankration, acknowledged as the “ original martial art", predates the oriental martial arts by 2,200 years and entered the Olympic Games in 648 BC. Pankration is one of the 7 original ancient events and was part of the Games for 1042 years and a movement is underway to see it re-enter the Olympic Games. The effort to re-enter Pankration Athlima in the Olympic Games began with Greek Ministry of Sports in 1995. Pankration Athlima was expected to re-enter during the 2004 Games held in Greece , but was only awarded a Demonstration Sport Exhibition status. Pankration is now practiced on 5 continents and has over 30 countries.
In the United States , Pankration Athlima is governed and organized by the U.S.A. Federation of Pankration Athlima (USAFPA). The President of the USAFPA is Master John Townsley of Illinois .
Master Roberto Serrano, 8th Degree Black Belt and Owner of Martial Arts America in Greendale was selected as the Head Coach for the US Team. Master Serrano previously captured Silver Medals in each of the 2003 and 2006 Pankration World Championships. Jim Rushmore, of Marc Laimon's Cobra Kai in Las Vegas also attended as the Assistant US Team Coach.
The US Pankration Team members that attended the Games included the following:
Wilke & Wright both won the Silver Medals in the Women's Palaismata. Wilke also served as the US member of the International Judging panel for this year's games.
In the Pankration Fighting Divisions, Laura Wright won a Silver Medal in the Women's -61 Kilo Division. She lost an extremely close match in the finals that went into overtime against her opponent from the Greek Pankration team. Wright had also previously won a Silver Medal in the 2006 World Championships.
For the Men, Ulysses Gomez absolutely dominated his opponents submitting everyone to get into the finals to face his USA teammate, Phillip Palmejar who also submitted all his opponents up to that point. The exciting ground battle between them ended with Gomez winning by points to capture the Gold; thus Palmejar brought home the Silver Medal.
Next up was Jacob Franke for the US Team in the Men's -71 Kilo Division. Franke, a well know powerful striker and strong grappler, dominated his opponents to get to the finals. In the finals, Franke faced a strong Greek fighter that has been executing incredible Judo throws on all his opponents. In their Gold Medal match, after being thrown several times by the Greek, Franke was able to knock down his opponent with a devastating front kick to the ribs that everyone thought ended the match. Unfortunately for Franke, after barely answering the 10-count, the tough Greek was able to come back to win the Gold by a slight edge on points. As disappointing as it was to Franke, this year's performance still improved on the two Bronze Medals that Franke previously won in both of the 2003 & 2006 World Championships.
Following these already great performances was David Bollea, a great grappler out of the Cobra Kai camp in Las Vegas . Bollea submitted all his opponents in impressively quick fashion with armbars to earn his Gold Medal in the -77 Kilo division.
David Son, the US fighter in the -83 Kilo division “took one for the team” and volunteered to move up to that division from the -77 Kilo to fill an empty US Team slot. Unfortunately, he faced a very strong Russian National Champion who was able to use his size and strength to dominate Son and win by points. The Russian went on to win the Gold in that division.
Despite having only a partial team, The US Pankration Team still earned enough medals to place third overall. This year's FILA World Wrestling Games were represented by more than 200 athletes from 22 counties, 7 of which had athletes in the Pankration Athlima events. "Despite the fact that we had only a partial team, every US Team member, except one, came home with a medal, two of them Gold. ' reflects Serrano; We will be working very hard to ensure that the US have a complete and full team for the next Pankration Athlima World Championships in 2008.”
"In this time of war and global turmoil, I am very proud of how our athletes represented the United States as ambassadors of good will with class and dignity both on and off the mat," explains Serrano.
For information on Pankration Athlima, please call Master John Townsley at (847) 971-2343 or Master Roberto Serrano at (414) 423-6700 or visit the USAFPA website at www.TeamUSAPankration.com .
