Justin Ruiz at the Vantaa Cup
Today I wrestled in the Vantaa Cup. Unfortunately for me things didn’t
go as well as I would have liked. I wrestled a Swedish opponent in the
first round of the tournament, and during the match I hurt my neck
and shoulder. I had one of the worst stingers that I have ever had in
my life. As I write this my hand is still numb and if I move my head
to the right or backwards I get shooting pains down my arm. Anyway
this slowed me down a little bit during my second match against
Ukraine, and I lost the match. After that match, I injury defaulted
out of the rest of the competition. Hopefully I will feel better to
compete next weekend and train some this week as well.
Even though things didn’t go as I had planned, I still feel that this
tournament was a good experience overall. I was able to polish a
couple of techniques during this week’s training as well as get in a
couple of good international matches. It is all part of the process to
be able to get back on top.
As far as the US team, we had some wrestlers do well. Dremiel Byers
won the tournament defeating Brandon Rupp in the finals. Chas Betts
won second place and we have several other wrestlers who are competing
this session who are going for third. There are also some good
wrestlers who are competing in the finals tonight. I am looking
forward to watching some good matches.
As a side note, from this picture it looks like I need to shave my
head when I get home. There is a litle too much shine on the top of my
head. Oh well. 
