NICE, France — The Cliff Keen Wrestling Club’s Alec Pantaleo kicked off 2023 with a dominant performance and 70kg gold medal at the annual Henri Deglane Grand Prix on Saturday (Jan. 21) at the Salle Leyrit arena.
Pantaleo posted a 3-0 record, outscoring his opposition 32-1, including a 12-1 win over Georgia’s Giorgi Tcholadze in the 70kg final. He scored three takedowns in the first period, then hit two crotch lifts — for two points then four — to end the bout at the 3:27 mark.
He opened the tournament with back-to-back 10-0 techs against Congo’s Arnaud Mambou and Germany’s Leon Gerstenberger. He totaled six takedowns, including a big four-point double leg against Congo, and three guts in those bouts.
J’den Cox earned a similarly dominant 11-0 tech superiority over Argentina’s Ricardo Adrian Baez in his first match at 97kg but was injured and did not continue in the round-robin competition.
Pantaleo and Cox, along with Myles Amine, will next head to Sofia, Bulgaria, for a week-long training camp before competing in the Zagreb Open on Wednesday, Feb. 1-2, in Zagreb, Croatia.
