COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Canada’s Tonya Verbeek beat American Marcie Van Dusen 1-1, 0-1, 1-1 on Saturday night to win the 121-pound women’s freestyle title in the Pan American Wrestling Championships.
Verbeek, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, pulled out the win late in the match on a single leg shot that took Van Dusen to the mat.
“It’s just my heart,” Verbeek said. “I think I can get a lot more out there technically, but sometimes that’s not enough. As a wrestler you get to a point in a match where you know you can, but sometimes you start doubting yourself. Tonight was all about me believing that I can and pursuing it until the very end.”
Verbeek’s win dampened Van Dusen’s bid to gain an Olympic berth for the United States at 121 pounds, the only female weight class where the U.S. has not qualified.
Van Dusen beat Verbeek in the 2007 Pan American Games en route to a silver medal.
“I know I’m a much better wrestler than I was then,” Van Dusen said. “I’ll go back and review the tape and find out what I did wrong. She had the better of it tonight, but it won’t happen again.”
Verbeek views the gold medal as a step in a comeback.
“I’ve had some ups and downs in my career since the last Olympics. I’m trying to work my way back up and kind of feel myself get back in competition, so it’s a big win for me.”
In weight classes where the U.S. already has Olympic berths, the Pan American Championships also served as confidence builders for gold medalists Clarissa Chun (105.5 pounds), Patricia Miranda (112.25), Tatiana Padilla (130). Elena Pirozhkov (147.5) and Stephany Lee (158.5).
Miranda was making her first mat appearance since injuring a knee in practice shortly before last summer’s World Championships.
She beat Vanessa Brown of Canada on a 6-0, 7-1 technical fall.
“It felt awesome,” Brown said. “It wasn’t perfect. It was good to put a singlet on and represent the U.S. This was a good warm up. Next week we head to Belarus and I should get a lot of good matches in.”
Chun, recovering from a sinus infection, beat Ingrid Cuellar of El Salvador.
Martine Dugrenier also won a gold medal for Canada, taking the 138.75-pound title with a decision over Sandra Ro of Colombia.
Tournament action will resume Sunday morning with early round competition in the men’s freestyle division. Finals will be contested in an evening session.
