Continuing his development into a leader of the McMaster men’s wrestling team, the Kingston, Ont. native won his second medal at the national level Saturday, while improving on his performance at the U SPORTS Championships of a season prior.
Zahra won silver in the 76kg class at the two-day national tournament in Calgary, and provided one of two medals for the Marauders men, who finished seventh as a group. His silver marked an improvement for the third-year Marauder over the bronze he won in the same class a year earlier.
Rolling through pool competition on day one of the championships, Zahra notched wins by technical superiority over Queen’s Michael Tremblay (12-2) and Saskatchewan’s Trent Siemens (15-4) before grinding out an 8-4 decision against Callum McNeice of the host Calgary Dinos.
Those results propelled him into the gold medal final against Brock’s Jevon Balfour, who he had been unable to battle at the OUA Championships a few weeks prior due to an injury sustained in pool action. Balfour came out on top Saturday, winning his astounding fifth individual title at the national championships and leaving Zahra with silver.
