What is usually the most exciting high-level event on USA Wrestling’s calendar, the World Team Trials, is set to take place this coming weekend. The wrestling takes place Sat., June 18, and Sun., June 19, at the Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa, on the campus of Iowa State University, the school where Dan Gable and Cael Sanderson wrestled. The top American wrestlers in freestyle, Greco-Roman, and women’s wrestling will be competing to win a spot on the U.S. team that will compete in the 2005 World Championships, to be held in Budapest, Hungary, Sept. 26-Oct. 2. The format of the World Team Trials is what makes it so especially compelling and dramatic. The winners in each weight at the U.S. Nationals are all guaranteed a spot in the finals. While they sit and watch during the first day of competition, everyone else must wrestle in the Challenge Tournament, where only one loss means you are out of contention for the finals. The winners of the Challenge Tournament then face the winners of the Nationals in a best-of-three series the next day, thus giving another advantage to the Nationals’ winners. Since this is the first year after the Olympics, many top wrestlers and perennial champions have either retired, such as Rulon Gardner and Kerry McCoy, or are just sitting this event out, such as Cael Sanderson. That opens the door for a new class of champions to begin their quest for gold on the world and Olympic levels. The World Team Trials will be aired on tape-delay on CSTV on Saturday, July 2, at 8 PM EDT. As always, check your local listings. This event will be held under the controversial new rules devised by FILA, the international wrestling federation. Chief among those are making the winner of each match the wrestler who first wins two periods, rather than the wrestler who scores the most total points in the three periods of wrestling. In addition, FILA has once again just revised its revised rules. In Greco, after one minute of wrestling in the standing position, there will be, in most cases, one minute of wrestling in the par terre position, on the mat. This is the second major change FILA has made to these rules since the 2004 Olympics less than one year ago. USA Wrestling has set up a special page to cover the World Team Trials. This can be seen at: http://www.themat.com/specialevents/2005/trials/
