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#130786 08/17/08 07:16 PM
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 167
Member
Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 167
Randi Miller earns dramatic bronze
(story courtesy of the Dallas Morning News-Brad Townsend)
























(Photo by Tom Fox/Dallas Morning News)

BEIJING _ When the public address announcer declared "Ten seconds left," Arlington Martin graduate Randi Miller's brain sounded an alarm through the din of screaming fans at China Agricultural University gymnasium.

"Shoot, shoot, now, now, now!" Miller told herself.
Shoot is the wrestling term for plowing an opponent's legs. With a dramatic bull rush, Miller turned defeat into a bronze medal victory Sunday in the women's 63 kg competition.

"She thought she had it won, but let go for a second," Miller, 24, said of her Canadian opponent, Martine Dugrenier. "You have to capitalize."

Miller did, earning a takedown with four seconds left in the third and final round of the match. The final score was 1-0, 1-2, 1-1. But in Olympic wrestling, if the combatants split the first two rounds and tie in the third, the wrestler who scores last wins the match.

"I heard there was ten seconds left, but I was in a really bad position," Dugrenier said. "I have to get out as soon as possible from that position."


Miller, who at 5-2 is several inches shorter than most competitors in the 138.75-pound division, got Dugrenier off-balance with a "double leg shot" and finally pulled her down with a front headlock.

"It was a hard style," Dugrenier said, shaking her head. "Just pushing for me is not really wrestling."

Miller is used to such comments. A 2001 Martin graduate who finished second in that year's state tournament, she got to Beijing the hard way.

She wrestled at Neosho County Community College in Kansas, MacMurray College in Illinois and the U.S. Education Center in Northern Michigan. In the U.S. trial, she defeated 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Sara McMann.

"Worried? Nah," said U.S. coach Terry Steiner, who embraced Miller after she leaped into his arms. "I knew she had the front headlock.

"Yeah, I was hoping we'd score a little bit earlier. But the thing about Randi is you're going to have to wrestle her the entire match."

Earlier Sunday, both Miller and Dugrenier lost to eventual gold medalist Kaori Icho, the Japanese sensation who earned gold in Athens and has won five world championships.

Miller said it wasn't until the final two matches that she convinced herself to wrestle "like it was any other meet." For winning the bronze, she receives a combined prize of $21,000 from the USOC, USA Wrestling and an independent benefactor.

"I really wanted a gold medal today, but I am very happy with the bronze right now," she said. "I'm going to look back at the things I did wrong, so if I do get a chance to come back, I can bring home a gold."

Fortunately, the Arlington product who wore green shoes with one pink shoelace remembered the most important rule of all: "There's no quit in wrestling," she said.


Aaron "Swayz" Sweazy
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 167
Member
Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 167


Randi with her Bronze!


Aaron "Swayz" Sweazy

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