Lamine Dieng (Senegal, 2008) and Eusebio Ledesma (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1996) were born 1,600 kilometers apart, separated by an ocean of different realities, but the coincidences of fate have meant that this year both sank their feet on the same sand to ensure that the Chimbesque Wrestling Club was crowned champion of the Canary Islands for the first time in 36 years.
The life stories of these two young men came together by chance when Ledesma met his in-laws, a couple working at a center for migrant minors in the municipality of Arafo in Tenerife, home of the newly arrived Dieng, at just 12 years old.
However, the two shared a passion for wrestling, Senegalese on one side and Canarian on the other, two sports with many things in common: two teams compete through one-on-one matches, in a duel on a sandy ground in which the objective is to knock down the opponent using similar skills.
And also significant differences, because in the case of the Senegalese, you have to fall with your chest or back to be eliminated, while in the Canarian, if you lean with your hands or knees, it is already considered a defeat, or that in Senegal it is allowed to grab hands or use the head to defend yourself, while in the Canarian, you are only allowed to do it from the clothes.
Dieng explains, during an interview with EFE together with Ledesma, that he arrived in the Canary Islands at the end of 2020, after living a childhood in which he was “always fighting” with his friends, “training in the afternoon and competing”, something that he “liked a lot” and makes him smile when he remembers it, but it would not be until 2022 when he did it again in the islands.
Companions, friends and also family
“It was thanks to Eusebio (Ledesma's father-in-law), who worked at the juvenile center. He was the one who took me to the Arafo Wrestling Club, where I started training. I always wanted to be with him, so he took me with his family and there I met them all, including Eusebio (Ledesma), with whom we are now colleagues, friends and I could also say family,” the young man details.
The road to competing together was long, first adapting to the change in the lower categories, until he managed to stand out and was called to the Tenerife cadet team, where he won the regional title, going through his willingness to change teams some time later, a process that was cut short by bureaucratic issues and kept him out of the competition.
It was not until this season when he achieved his signing for the Chimbesque Wrestling Club together with Ledesma, who in turn was transferred from the Maxorata Wrestling Club (Fuerteventura), where they had just been crowned champions of the Caixabank League and the DISA Government of the Canary Islands Trophy, as well as runners-up of the Cajasiete Cup, two of the three tournaments that make up the absolute league.
During that journey, which the Senegalese has made while still a youth, the relationship between them has become very close.
So much so that Ledesma defines Dieng as a “really good boy” with an “incredible future in sports”, since he has the necessary qualities to “become a very outstanding fighter”.
While the young Senegalese describes the Canarian as “a person who has helped him a lot”, with whom he wants to be competing all the time, since he is a “reference for all young fighters”.
“Since I saw him, when he was fighting in Maxorata, I have always said that I want to be like him, because I really like how he fights, his form, his style. I'm not saying it because he's here, but because I really think so. I hope in the future I have his method and his skills to be able to do the same,” explains Dieng.
From the Canary Islands to Senegal
A process that is now making its way back, according to Ledesma, who is currently visiting his friend's native country for the first time to face a Senegalese wrestling opponent, after learning and practicing with Lamine and “suffering the reverse adaptation process” that he experienced when he arrived in Canarian wrestling.
Dieng looks to the future with hope. This season was for him a “dream come true” that he wants to repeat, because he trusts his teammates, just as he is also motivated to continue his own path from January, when he will have to take a big leap and leave the center where he currently resides when he turns 18, to “look for an apartment and earn a living.”
Ledesma shares his enthusiasm, because according to him, it was in the “last months of the season” when Lamine “began to fight better”, so they have “high expectations” that the next one will be “even better” given his “enormous potential”, although he also admits that “sometimes nerves can get to him”, something normal now that he competes with the arenas full of public, to which he will “get used to”.
“We have confidence in him, we have talked about the things he needs to improve and I am sure that he will put his effort into doing it (…) He is a great fighter and he will be even more so (…) And when he turns 18 he will have our support for whatever he needs, even from the club if necessary. So, he can rest assured, he will not have any difficulty, for sure,” concludes Ledesma.