She may be returning to don red and white at York University, but Alexandria Town will wear another red and white uniform at the upcoming 2021 Senior World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway.
Town, a native of Scarborough, Ont., has wrestled her way onto Team Canada in the 57-kilogram division for the upcoming international competition, making her return to the stage where she made Canadian history with a gold medal victory at the U23 level in 2018.
The qualification came last weekend, when Town joined her Canadian teammates in Saskatoon for the Senior World Team Trials, an event that determines Canada's entrants into the world championships.
The event was held for the first time in over two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite that, Town showed no signs of rust. She defeated Montreal's Laurence Beauregard 13-0 in the 57-kilogram division final. Beauregard, a member of the Concordia Stingers varsity wrestling team, was the only other competitor in the division.
Both her and Town received byes to reach the final. Town's decorated world championship resume displays her experience with international-level competition. She competed for Canada at the 2018 U23 World Wrestling Championships in Bucharest, Romania, becoming the first Canadian to ever win gold at the event.
Town, embarking on her second stint as a Lion, recently re-enrolled at York to attend teachers college. She previously graduated from York with a degree in kinesiology and health science and has spent the past three seasons competing internationally for Canada, winning multiple medals at events around the globe. She finished 12th at her first senior world championships and third at the Canadian Olympic Trials in 2019.
In her three years competing for the Lions (2016-18), Town became York's first women's wrestling all-star and all-Canadian. She won three Ontario University Athletics medals and two U SPORTS medals.