MIKE KUHNS
Record Sports Editor
Angelo Borzio, the former wrestler and coach at East Stroudsburg University, is supposed to be lounging on the beach these days, not wrestling on it.
But wrestling was exactly what Borzio was doing last Saturday in West Palm Beach, Fla. at the first ever USA Beach Nationals.
Borzio won the heavyweight class 240-270 pounds and a bid to the World Championships in Turkey Nov. 1-5. The former wrestler who rose as high as No. 3 on the U.S. Olympic ladder, placing third at the U.S. Nationals in 2000, admits he didn’t know what to expect when he entered the tournament.
“I don’t know how to take it serious, “said Borzio, who wrestled in the Olympic trials in 2000 and ’04. “What do I do, go to the beach and push people around?”
Once thought to have ended his competitive wrestling career, Borzio just couldn’t resist giving beach wrestling a shot.
“I looked at it as an opportunity to have fun, “he said.
The sport emerged last year and consists of a rope that is laid in the sand which forms a 20-foot diameter circle. A takedown is a point and getting any part of your opponent out of the circle is a point.
The first wrestler to two points wins. There is a three minute time limit on each match. If there is not a winner on points, the referee declares a winner.
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