A local man is pinning his success on the future of an emerging sport by hosting a national championship next weekend for beach wrestling, a sport recently sanctioned by the International Wrestling Federation.
Wrestlers will compete for three minutes inside a 20-foot circle drawn in the sand of Caroga’s Pine Lake beach on Aug. 5, trying to pin their opponent or force them to retreat.
You would think that wrestling on sand would hurt a lot more than being pinned on a rubber mat in a gym, but wrestling promoter Tom Bergami is quick to dispel that notion.
Actually, it doesn’t hurt, said Bergami, owner of Albany’s TNT Northeast Wrestling. `My boys have been wrestling on the beach. The sand gives. And, throws aren’t as important as forcing your opponent from the ring.`
Bergami added that a recent rule change for freestyle wrestling takes a lot of the pain out of the sport.
`The one thing nice about pinning on the beach is it’s quick,` Bergami said. `There’s no counting in freestyle wrestling. If your shoulders hit the sand, it’s a pin.`
What happens it if rains on the 5th? Bergami said with a laugh that spectators would see mud wrestling because the one-day tournament will go on, rain or shine.
`Our wrestlers are tough kids,` Bergami said. `They’re not worried about a little bit of rain. All they want to do is wrestle. If it rains, it’ll be a dreary day but we’re not worried about it.`
Last year, a similar event at a New York City beach drew approximately 12,000 spectators to watch hundreds of wrestlers go at it. Bergami doesn’t expect as big a turnout at the championship meet in sleepy Fulton County’s hamlet of Caroga, but he is enthusiastic about the responses he has received and expects more wrestlers to register after the Empire State Games end.
Since it’s a new twist on the ancient sport, the events are pretty open. Meets are coed, featuring wrestlers from the peewee ranks at 10 years old, and up.
Why beach wrestling?
`For thousands of years, in dozens of cultures, wrestling op-ponents would face each other, centered in a circle drawn on the sand,` Bergami said. `Through rounds of hand-to-hand combat, a victor would emerge to boast that they were king of the sport. That’s what will be happening in Pine Lake on Aug. 5.`
USA Wrestling, the national governing body for wrestling, will sanction the competition. The local event is one of only four such championship matches set for the East Coast this summer. The other East Coast national competitions will occur in Long Beach, New York, New Jersey and Florida.
The regional championship matches all lead up to the world championship meet in Antalya, Turkey, in October.
Wrestlers win their matches when they score falls by forcing the opponent’s shoulders to the sand; they score two takedowns; they score two throws; their opponent is penalized twice for fleeing the competition area; they score one takedown and have one fleeing call against their opponent.
For information, call 346-1130, or visit www.tntwrestling.org.“