By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net    

BAHAMIAN amateur wrestler Shannon Hanna II made his tournament appearances count in June, picking up two medals along the way. 

He opened up the month with a gold medal finish on June 8 at the United World Wrestling (UWW) Pat Shaw Memorial and closed it out with a bronze medal placement in the 65kg freestyle weight class at the U23 Pan-American Championships on June 22 in Rionegro, Colombia.

His latest top three finish earned him his third international medal of 2024 and bumped him up to a 9-4 (win/loss record) in 13 bouts this year.

The bronze medallist said it was fun to claim another medal this time around despite experiencing a minor setback in the quarter finals. 

“It was fun. I had to wrestle against the USA in the first round and it was crazy to see that the two best guys in the bracket had to go against each other in the first round. 

“It was a bit annoying because first matches are always the hardest for everyone, being that you kind of want to warm up in your first match,” he said.

Hanna would go on to lose against the USA’s Wyatt Henson 4-2. He revealed that he thought it was a match that he had a chance to win but fell a bit short. 

“I lost my first match against the USA. It was a really close match that I should have won. It was really tough and I had to get my mind back right in order to wrestle again and take bronze. I wanted to take gold but I had to get the next best thing after that which was bronze,” he said.

Fortunately, his tournament experience would continue thanks to the repechage system against Puerto Rico’s Tyler Knox. The Bahamian would comfortably defeat the Puerto Rican 10-0 via tech fall for the bronze medal.

The 23-year-old shared his mindset in the bronze medal match following a tough loss in the opening round against the USA.

“After I lost the first match, I had a ‘I smelled blood in the water’ mentality. I just wanted to finish the match quickly and get the win as fast as possible and that is what I did,” he said.

This is the fifth tournament Hanna has wrestled in since the calendar switched to 2024. He admitted that the exposure has definitely helped him to improve his craft as an amateur wrestler and believes that the international experiences will help for NCAA wrestling. “I have been getting a lot of exposure. Wrestling in all of these tournaments, I have been able to wrestle against a bunch of different countries with different styles. It has been special because I think it is gonna help me for the NCAA with all USA wrestlers. Being able to wrestle outside of the USA has really helped me elevate my game,” he said.

Next up for Hanna will be the U23 World Championships scheduled for October 21-27 in  Tirana, Albania. 

As the dedicated wrestler continues his journey, the Pan-Am bronze medallist is making an appeal to corporate Bahamas to offer some assistance with regards to his travel and training expenses.

Interested sponsors can reach out to him via email at shannon.hanna18@gmail.com or to his agents chris@agentcy.co and sawyer@agentcy.co.