14 January 2012 / Wrestlers Without Borders heading to Vegas for Sin City Shootout

LOS ANGELES, 9 January 2012 – Wrestlers Without Borders (WWB) will celebrate its 20th anniversary this month at the multi-sport Sin City Shootout in Las Vegas, with a inaugural freestyle tournament, WWB's first-ever grappling clinic, and the induction of four LGBT wrestling pioneers into the Hall of Merit.

The wrestling weekend is being coordinated by Southern California Wrestling Club's Chris Lorefice, a WWB delegate to the Federation of Gay Games. WWB and SCWC are partnering to run the wrestling events. "We expect about 20-25 wrestlers, and so far the organization from the Sin City group has been great," Lorefice said. "We are expecting a great event in Vegas."

The new tournament is named the Runyon Wrestling Classic, in honor of the late Pete Runyon, founder of SCWC. It is expected to draw around two dozen athletes, on par with the debut for most club tournaments.
Former SCWC coach Mike Rio, a gold medalist in Gay Games II, will be inducted into WWB's Hall of Merit posthumously. Joining him in being honored will be: Rochelle Robinson, San Francisco, 1998 Gay Games and U.S. Nationals champion; Michael Ognibene, New York City, three-time Gay Games gold medalist; and Albert "Ace" Rocek, San Francisco, three-time Gay Games gold medalist.

In addition to the Saturday freestyle tournament and awards ceremonies, the weekend will feature a grappling clinic on Sunday. Grappling, along with beach wrestling and Greco-Romans, are forms of wrestling which future Gay Games hosts have the option of adding to their freestyle tournaments.
"Grappling is swiftly growing in popularity with younger wrestlers because of the growth of mixed martial arts," said WWB Chairman Roger Brigham. "We felt the Gay Games program would be more appealing for some wrestlers if they had the option of competing in other forms that are more popular in some areas or are showing strong growth."

Wrestling was approached in 2010 to become part of the Sin City Shootout. After SWCW and WWB explored member interest and organizational options, the decision was made to join in the fun. WWB member Metro Wrestling Club, which normally holds its annual tournament on that weekend, moved its tournament date so wrestlers could have the option of competing in both events.

"We were delighted to have the opportunity to be in the shootout because of the ability to offer a very, very low cost tournament and to be able to control our expenses and tournament management," Brigham said. "This grassroots model looks to be a solid experiment in allowing events to grow in size organically as the market demands without incurring large-scale expenses. Softball will be about 100 times the size of wrestling tin terms of participation, but both will be equal in the ability to combine fun and competition."

For more information or photos, contact Chris Lorefice HERE.
The WWB Don Jung Hall of Merit may be found online at HERE.