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'Flonner Lee makes it to world championships, misses medals after close match

Hunter Lee’s exit from the under-23 world championship came earlier than the Flin Flonner would have hoped, missing the medal round and top-10 after a hard matchup and sudden loss.
S45 Wrestling Hunter Lee
Hunter Lee holds up his traditional Flin Flon flag (complete with the names of his supporters from back home) following the world under-23 championships in Serbia last year.

Hunter Lee’s exit from the under-23 world championship came earlier than the Flin Flonner would have hoped, missing the medal round and top-10 after a hard matchup and sudden loss.

Lee entered this year’s United World Wrestling (UWW) Under-23 World Wrestling Championships as Canada’s entrant in the 86-kilogram category, hoping to build on his seventh-place showing at the event last year. The road there would not be easy, with the group full of 24 competitors each gunning for the same medals Lee himself hoped to win.

Lee would meet a highly touted opponent immediately in the round of 16 - Mukhammad Aliiev, a Ukrainian wrestler who won the under-23 world championships last year before war broke out in his homeland. Aliiev would have to go into the qualification round for this year’s worlds, but came in highly favoured, beating Latvian wrestler Ivars Samusonoks - the same man who eliminated Lee from last year’s worlds - to set up the date with Lee.

Lee and Aliiev fought hard, going the full six minutes, but Lee would end up losing out on points. Aliiev would advance, but Lee would have to rely on a stroke of luck to make it into the repechage - the consolation round.

Six wrestlers would be named to the repechage round and would get a shot at a medal. Unfortunately, Lee would not be named to the round, stopping his bid to get one final U23 world medal in its tracks. His final finish would be marked down by the UWW as 17th of 24 entrants.

The meet will be Lee’s final under-23 world championship meet - the wrestler will now age out of the category into the senior classification.

With his university wrestling career at the Univ. of Saskatchewan now over, Lee has pursued a career in mixed martial arts (MMA), winning both of his fights so far - one at the amateur level and a second in his professional debut earlier this year.

 

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