Jamaican U20 wrestler Irie Jackson continues to climb the international ranks, earning a silver medal at the 2025 Pan American U20 Championships in Lima, Peru. Competing as Jamaica’s sole representative, Jackson battled through a tough field in the men’s freestyle 57kg weight class to improve on his 2024 bronze medal finish.

The 20-year-old opened his tournament in dominant fashion, defeating Peru’s Abel Gustavo Sanchez Juarez via a 10–0 technical fall, then steamrolling Guatemala’s Hugo Fernando Lopez in the semifinal with another 10–0 technical fall in just 40 seconds.

In the gold medal match, Jackson faced a major test in Brazil’s Caio Duarte Aron, the 7th-place finisher at the 2024 U20 World Championships. Jackson trailed 0–8 by the end of the first period and ultimately fell 2–13 as Duarte Aron secured a win by technical superiority.

Despite the result in the final, Jackson was upbeat about his progress and the value of the experience:

“I’m pretty excited that I made the finals and finished where I did. Obviously, I’m not too happy with the loss I took in the finals, but getting there is an improvement from last year, so I love to see improvement—that’s all I ever strive for.”

He emphasized the importance of international exposure:

“This tournament is extremely beneficial for going into Worlds. There aren’t many opportunities to compete with a large number of countries. Sometimes you may go to a regional tournament, but you’ll just wrestle a lot of guys from that country. But going to a tournament like this, you get matches with guys from all across the region, so that’s about the second-best thing you can get compared to Worlds.”

With his top-three finish, Jackson has officially qualified for the 2025 United World Wrestling (UWW) U20 World Championships, set for August 17–18 in Bulgaria. He was accompanied at the tournament by coach Dwight Spence, who has been helping guide his steady progression through the ranks.

Looking ahead, the rising Jamaican star is focused and methodical in his approach:

“Over these next five-ish weeks or so, I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing—training hard, training consistent, prioritizing quality over quantity. I’m making sure that all the practices I’m going to are for a reason and really just putting focus on the things I saw this past weekend that I need to improve on.

In my finals match, I had a few areas that led to big openings, and that made the score seem worse than I think it really was. So I’ll keep working on those things and possibly even get in some more competition between now and then, possibly in Mexico.”

Jackson is set to continue his World Championships preparations with intensive training camps in Wisconsin, USA, and Mexico City, Mexico over the next several weeks.