Weicker reaches podium at senior worlds
Diana Weicker put an exclamation mark on a breakthrough season with a bronze medal in the 53-kilogram division at the senior world wrestling championships in Budapest, Hungary, last week.
Earlier in the year, the Brock Wrestling Club member won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.
“So far, it has been my favourite year,” the 29-year-old Thorold resident said. “This year had been huge not in the placing but in the performance. Poland was one of the most exciting moments for me and I only got fifth.”
The mother of two young children made a quantum leap from being 12th at the senior worlds in a non-Olympic weight class (55 kilograms) in 2017 to a bronze medal in an Olympic weight class in 2018.
“I made huge leaps and bounds this year,” she said.
The women she beat in the bronze-medal match, Kazakstan’s Zhuldyz Eshimova, was a multiple medalist at previous world championship, and the women she beat in her first match, Romania’s Estera Tamaduiana, was fifth at the 2017 worlds.
“I was beating substantial people along the way which is really exciting,” she said.
Nothing was more exciting than when her arm was lifted to signify her victory over Eshimova in the bronze-medal match.
“I was trying really hard not to focus on the fact that I was in a medal match and just focusing on wrestling smart.”
The bronze-medal match was technical in nature.
“I knew she was going to be passive and really playing a game and trying to get me to bite on it, and I was trying so hard to focus on wrestling smart as opposed to going after her and being all over her and too excited to win,” she said. “It was surreal when they raised my arm and I realized what I had just done.”
The surreal feeling was quickly replaced by excitement.
“Every level of excitement was rushing through me: Excitement for the future; excitement for what just happened; and, excitement for our whole team.
“It was excitement for everything.”
The Canadian team won a best-ever four medals at the championships.
And while Weicker was thrilled with the result, it made her realize there is more work yet to be done.
“I didn’t have the perfect performance there and to know that is so exciting. I think if I can get back and fix all these things what can I do next time?” she said. “My biggest thing is learning how to bring the same intensity every single time that I walk on the mat.”
She felt she lacked intensity in her semifinal match against American Sarah Hildebrandt
“I wasn’t happy with how I performed in my semifinal, not because I didn’t win but because I didn’t bring my best self. Why didn’t I bring my best self? If I can learn to bring my best self every single time I walk on that mat, I believe in my heart that I can win a gold medal anywhere.”
Hildebrandt scored six points in the first scoring sequence, putting Weicker in a hole she was unable to climb out of.
“To come back after your are losing by that much is very difficult for anybody to do,” she said. “Letting her get that edge first and letting her bring the heat to me and scoring so many points right off the bat really put me in a horrible position.”
That being said, Weicker has been in that position before. She was trailing 9-0 at the Canadian trials before rallying win 10-9.
“In Canada, we have very tough girls all over and it’s not like you walk on to the world team and it’s easy,” she said. “It was part of a huge learning curve for me and I felt it only gave me more experience on learning how to be down and still coming and winning.”
Looming ahead for Weicker and her Brock teammates are the Olympic trials which will be held in December of 2019.
“I have been motivated for years and it just builds on itself,” she said. “The trials being a year away sounds really long to everyone, but anyone who is looking at competing at it thinks it’s tomorrow and feels like it is not enough time.
“I’ve been anxious for the past year about the trials being so soon.”
