Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

A number of sports that have huge participation numbers worldwide fly under the radar in New Zealand, both in competitor numbers and media profile.

Olympic style (amateur) wrestling is one such sport that sits in the top ten of world sport participation numbers, but has a low profile in New Zealand.

Later this year, the profile of the sport should receive a boost in the Bay of Plenty when the Olympic Wrestling New Zealand National Championships are held in Tauranga.

Sideline Sid always takes more than a passing interest in amateur wrestling, as he competed on the mat during his long ago secondary school days.

The first national championships were held in 1931, with the heavyweight title won by Lofty Blomfield - who went on to carve out an illustrious career in the professional ranks.

Another to win the national heavyweight amateur crown was John da Silva. Da Silva achieved the unique distinction in 1955 of winning the New Zealand Heavyweight wrestling title and also the Auckland Boxing Heavyweight championship.

Over the decades, Olympic style wrestling has thrived in the smaller centres throughout the country.

Places like Te Awamutu, Rangiora, Tawa (Wellington) and Featherston, along with Western Bay clubs in Katikati and Mount Maunganui, have been amongst the powerbases of the sport in the country.

One Western Bay resident, who always enthusiastically promoted the sport whenever he could before he passed away at the grand old age of 90, was Ken Ruby.

While small in stature, Ken was a dynamo on the mat and achieved great success in his chosen sport. He won the New Zealand Bantamweight title in 1939.

After WW2, Ken stepped up to annex the featherweight crown in 1948 before dropping back to win back to back Bantamweight titles in 1952 and 1953.

He represented New Zealand in the Featherweight class at the British Empire Games in 1954 – the games were the fore-runner to the present-day Commonwealth Games.

The Olympic Wrestling New Zealand National Championships, to be held in at QE2 Memorial Hall on the 28/29 August 2015, have an extra-large significance for a small group of elite wrestlers in the country.

The senior gold medalists, at the National Championships in Tauranga, will qualify for the Oceania Championships to be held in Hamilton in March next year.

From there, the Oceania champions qualify for the Oceania/Africa Olympic qualification tournament in Algeria, where the top two from each weight division will book an Olympic berth.

For a number of the youngsters who will wrestle at the National Champs in Tauranga, it will be there first time on the big stage, of their sports pinnacle tournament.

August will be a huge month for the Mount Maunganui Wrestling Club who will also host the Bay of Plenty Championships on August 2, before getting ready for the National Championships a few short weeks later.