Durlacher wins double title at Maccabiah Games in Israel, July 17-18, as U.S. claims six total gold medals
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
Lindsey Durlacher (Colorado Springs, Colo./New York AC) won a double title, capturing a gold medal in both Greco-Roman and freestyle, in the wrestling competition at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, July 17-18.
The Maccabiah Games bring together the best Jewish athletes from around the world to participate in sport and solidarity.
Durlacher, a member of the 2005 U.S. Greco-Roman World Team and the team captain of the U.S. Maccabiah wrestling team, claimed his gold medals at 60 kg/132 lbs., which is one weight class up from his regular division at 55 kg/121 lbs.
“Lindsey wrestled very well,” said U.S. assistant coach Teague Moore (Cambridge, Mass.). “The Greco-Roman tournament was very strong, and Lindsey competed well. He had a tough Russian in his weight. Lindsey lost the first period to the Russian, then won the next two. He then defeated an Israeli to get the gold.”
“He came back in freestyle, and the competition was not quite as steep,” said Moore. “Lindsey wrestled freestyle very hard. He beat three opponents to get the gold. For a guy who wrestles Greco-Roman all the time, he executed good freestyle technique.”
The U.S. won four gold medals in freestyle, getting wins from Durlacher, Max Meltzer (Bethesda, Md./Harvard) at 66 kg/145.5 lbs., Lior Zamir (Fair Lawn, N.J./Univ. of Pennsylvania) at 74 kg/163 lbs. and Matt Greenberg (Ithaca, N.Y./New York AC) at 96 kg/211.5 lbs.
The U.S. champions in Greco-Roman were Durlacher and Josh Feldman (Pensacola, Fla./U.S. Navy) at 120 kg/264.5 lbs.
The U.S. wrestlers competed in both styles, and in total, the U.S. had 11 medals in the two tournament.
Durlacher, Meltzer, Zamir and Feldman won two medals, as did Jordan Brown (Solon, Ohio/Northwestern Univ.) at 55 kg/121 lbs. Durlacher had two gold medals. Meltzer and Zamir silver medals in Greco-Roman to go with their gold medals in freestyle. Feldman won a gold in Greco-Roman and a bronze in freestyle. Brown won a silver medal in freestyle and a bronze medal in Greco-Roman.
“Max Meltzer had a very good tournament,” said Moore. “In Greco-Roman, he had two very good wrestlers, both from Israel. In the finals match, he sprained his ankle and ended up finishing the bout. We didn’t know if he could wrestle this morning in freestyle. He had a good win against a tough Israeli in his first match, then won all his bouts. He performed at a time when we didn’t know if he could even compete.”
“Feldman had some of the largest brackets in the tournament,” said Moore. “First, he won in Greco-Roman. He has some difficult matches, and wrestled smart. He beat some good Russians. He said he has not wrestled much freestyle in years. He went out and gamed up, and wrestled strong matches. He lost in the freestyle final match to a talented young Russian.”
The team, under the leadership of head coach Adam Kantor (Annapolis, Md.) and Moore, spent two weeks training in Israel prior to the competition. The coaches were pleased with the preparation and performance of the athletes.
“There were some really good wrestlers at the tournament,” said Kantor. “The tournament was tougher for our guys in Greco because some of them really had not had much experience with that style. Overall, I am proud of our performance. It was a good showing as we pretty much dominated the freestyle scene. It has been a long three weeks and everyone is ready to head back to the States.”
“We met our goals. Coming in with the guys we had, we knew it would be an uphill battle,” said Moore. Most of our athletes, except for Durlacher and Feldman, had a freestyle background. We trained hard for our two weeks here. We are very happy with what we achieved. We also were pleased with how they handled the ups and downs of the tournament. In many matches, they were not the favorites. The matches that we won, they were well earned.”
For update on U.S. Maccabiah team results
http://www.maccabiusa.com/
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