Ashtiani's mental game is golden
Feb. 27, 2009 - Regina Leader-Post
By Tim Switzer
For four years, gold medals have been on Hajar Ashtiani's mind.
In her first three years wrestling for the University of Regina Cougars, Ashtiani won medals in three Canada West championships and two CIS championships.
Only problem was, none were gold.
That didn't come until the most-recent conference championships when Ashtiani went 3-0 and won the 48-kilogram weight class. Today in Calgary she begins the road to what she hopes will be a CIS championship gold. The competition continues through Saturday.
"It has been a couple years of disappointment after being so close, so hopefully this is the year," said Ashtiani, 25. "There's always been someone in my way and it has been that way for three years."
Even when Ashtiani took a year away from the university wrestling circuit last season, she had to suffer heartbreak. Ashtiani took the sabbatical in order to train and attempt to earn a berth in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She still trained at the U of R -- mostly with Cougars assistant Danny McGee -- but didn't compete on the university level during that year.
Though she got through her weight class in her native Finland, she was unable to qualify for an Olympic spot.
"It was something I had put so much time into for a lot of years ... but that's the way the sport is and it was hard to get over that," she said. "It took me months to get over it. I couldn't even talk about it -- it would just bring me back to that time. There's something to what Leo (McGee, Regina's head coach) always says: 'The next day your mom and dad will love you and so will everyone else.' It took a couple days but I did get over it and saw those things in my life other than that. Because I had focused so much on (the Olympics) it was hard to see anything else."
In the long run, that experience seems to have helped Ashtiani. That first conference gold medal and being named the Canada West female wrestler-of-the-year are proof of that.
"It made me a little more relaxed and I'm starting to enjoy it again," said Ashtiani. "It's not just training, training, training. Physically I'm not quite there, but mentally I'm better and I'm wrestling better."
McGee has liked what Ashtiani has shown since rejoining the Cougars in the fall.
"There was a lot of pressure (on the road to the Olympics) and in my mind that's what builds your competitor," said McGee. "You have to have them in situations where they're dealing with stress when they wrestle and they have to mange that. Doing all that, it helps them develop the mental skills that come with competing at that level."
Ashtiani is also enjoying having the pressure of classes back on her plate. She is a two-time Academic All-Canadian.
"Looking back it was maybe not a good idea to take that semester off," said Ashtiani. "I think I like the balance of having school and wrestling."
Also competing for the Cougars' women's team at the national championships in Calgary are Jade Parsons (51kg), Jasmine Slinn (55kg) and Inga Van Vliet (67kg).
"(Parsons, Ashtiani and Slinn) are all actually 48s, but we have to spread them out," said McGee. "They're no strangers to tough competition."
On the men's side the Cougars are fielding wrestlers in seven of the 10 weight classes: Gilbert Musonza (54kg), Steven Schneider (57kg), Chad Bates (61kg), Kyle Bershatsky (65kg), Peter De La Cruz (68kg), Connor Malloy (72kg) and Jarrett Coels (76kg).
De La Cruz finished fourth at the conference championship and didn't originally qualify for the national meet, but got in because of an injury to the Alberta Golden Bears' Curtis Horsburgh, the brother of former Cougars grappler Cory.