Sadiku finds home in Brock wrestling room
The Brock wrestling room is the perfect place for Ligrit Sadiku.
“I need to be in a place where everyone has the same goal as me which is to go to the Olympics,” said the 22-year-old native of Prince Edward Island. “The coaches are very committed here so it helps me push myself and bring the best out of myself.”
Sadiku recently won his second straight U SPORTS gold medal after winning a national university bronze medal in his first year of eligibility with Western. Competing at last weekend’s senior national championships in Saskatoon, Sadiku won a bronze medal in the 57-kilogram division.
It was his best-ever performance at the senior nationals. He also won a bronze last year, but it came in the 61-kilogram divisions which is a non-Olympic weight class.
“It was a lot tougher, especially with this being the last nationals before the Olympic trials,” said the former silver medalist at junior nationals.
And added bonus at this year’s senior nationals was that Sadiku won the match for ‘true silver’ when the runner-up in the division forfeited the match. This makes him eligible to attend any international events that the Canadian champion doesn’t want to attend.
“I have never been on Team Canada before and I am really happy to actually have a chance to do it,” he said.
Sadiku feels he has made a lot of improvements in his time at Brock.
“It’s developing quickly and it’s only going up,” he said. “I see my results getting better and I rarely have losses now that I am at Brock.
“Being in a room with all those tough guys and the coaches allows me to excel. I am getting better every single day.”
His goals for the remainder of 2019 is to train harder in the summer with the hope of getting to a few international trips and camps and then be ready for the Olympic trials in December in Niagara.
“I am thinking about 2024 because that (age 26) is around the time that wrestlers peak, but I have the ability to do it in 2020,” he said. “If I leave it all on the mat, I think I can do it.”
To do that means more training.
“I want to get back in the room and work on the mistakes I made at nationals,” he said. “We take a break after nationals but it’s hard because of my result. I want to get right back into it.”
Sadiku was among a number of wrestlers at Brock who had to try to peak for the U SPORTS championships and then the senior nationals three weeks later. That is a difficult task but Sadiku was up to the challenge.
“I personally like it,” he said. “My first year at Brock I wasn’t able to do U SPORTS because I transferred and I only peaked once.
“I liked peaking twice this year. It kind of let you body rest and to bring out the best in yourself twice was really nice.”
It also allowed him to fix some mistakes he made the first time around.
