Best on the planet
GLACIER HIGH wrestler Kaura Coles, wrestling for Canada, closes out her pin of Japan’s Nana Kozuka in the finals of the 53-kilogram bracket of the U17 World Championships Saturday in Amman, Jordan. (photo courtesey of United World Wrestling)
Add “world champion” to the list of accomplishments for Glacier High wrestler Kaura Coles, after she won her weight class Friday at the United World Wrestling U17 World Championships in Amman, Jordan.
The high school junior went 5-0 at 53 kilograms (116.6 pounds) in Jordan, scoring three pins — including the final, which she won by fall in three minutes, 19 seconds over Nana Kazuka of Japan.
Originally from Bragg Creek, Alberta, Coles wrestled for Canada and became her nation’s first girls world champion. Coles led Kazuka 11-7 when she secured the pin, after the Japanese wrestler scored early and led 4-2.
“A lot of people, when they wrestle people from Japan, they get nervous about it,” Coles said by phone on Saturday. “I watched her matches and all of her opponents were backing away most of the time. I knew if I brought it to her, brought the heat, I could at least stay in it.
“She did score two takedowns, but by the second period — I think she got in her own head, quite a bit.”
Coles started wrestling at age 11, and soon was traveling between Canada and the U.S. for competition.
“I’ve been training in Pennsylvania because they have a lot of strong wrestlers there,” she said. “I travel a lot between Montana and Pennsylvania — or anywhere in the United States where there’s a lot of action going on.”
Now she’s jet-setting around the globe. In her first four matches in Jordan, Coles beat Madkhiya Usmanova of Kazakstan and Chloe Brewis of South Africa by pin, then won decisions over Muskan Muskan of India (12-3) and Isabella Gonzales of the U.S. (8-3).
“I did not expect to do as well as I did,” she said. “I can’t control the outcome, I can only control what I can do. My mindset was just to push myself as hard as I could go. Which I guess was good strategy.
“I tried to be ready for anything, so nothing surprises me. I know a lot of these girls from different parts of the world have different styles.”
Coles has won two Montana state high school titles in dominant fashion; she has not surrendered a point in her two visits to First Interstate Arena in Billings.
The rest of the world is finding her tough to handle as well. According to a story at uww.org, no Canadian had reached the final in women’s wrestling and Coles’ medal is only the second in the tournament’s history.