PHOTOS: Sergio Betancort
The small beach of Playa Blanca, known as "the town's beach", was the setting chosen for the celebration of the Youth Canarian Wrestling Sash, in which Cristo Betancort, from Club Tao, prevailed. The event aims to "crown" the best youth wrestler on the island of Lanzarote and had a large presence of lovers of this sport, as well as tourists who populated the Avenida Marítima to take photos and browse about one of our vernacular sports.
There were 13 wrestlers who gathered at the event, being exempt from wrestling in the round of 16 Pedro Cabrera, Pedro Arrocha and Alejandro García, while the pairings in the draw left in this first phase the fights between Joel Curbelo and Javier Betancort, with victory for Joel by two to zero; Miguel Reyes and Cristian Morales, with victory for Cristian by 0 to 2; Alejandro Tejera and Hacomar Elvira, with defeat of the Tao wrestler by 1 to 2; Cristian Tabares and Cristo Betancort, with victory for Cristo by 2 to 1 after overcoming Cristian's first point; and Amado Aguilar with Javier Quesada, with victory for Amado by 2 to 1.
In the quarterfinals, Joel Curbelo defeated Pedro Cabrera without contemplation, while the southern Cristian Morales did the same with Pedro Arrocha. On the other side of the bracket, Crito Betancort had no opposition with Amado Aguilar, while Alejandro Tejera and Alejandro García experienced an interesting fight that was decided for Tejera by 2 to 1.
Already in the semifinals, the local Cristian Morales continued with power, defeating Joel Curbelo by 2 to 0, while Cristo Betancort won by 2 to 1 against Alejandro Tejera and stood in the final.
The third and fourth place, as well as the final, were played to the best of 5 fights and not to the best of three, as usual. In the consolation final, Alejandro Tejera gave Joel Curbelo to the ground twice, but he returned one in the third grab. The fourth was decisive for Alejandro Tejera, who took the third place in the Lanzarote 2016 Youth Sash, while Joel Curbelo was fourth.
The final was also exciting. In the first of the grabs there was nothing remarkable and the wrestlers did little to throw each other, ending up both separated. Cristo took the initiative in the second grab and threw the local, who returned it in the third. There was a tie at one and there were two more grabs left. The Tao wrestler gave in the sand of Playa Blanca with the southern in the fourth and gave him few options in the fifth grab, with Cristo Betancort taking the Lanzarote 2016 Youth Sash, while Cristian Morales was runner-up. The Sash was presented by Alejandro Umpierrez, winner of the last Lanzarote Youth Sash.