Member News
October 27, 2007
Ibera, Gotay, Hashimoto,
Brestyan and Stevens Win in
Canada
Completed Pools
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Jeremy Liggett throws his 66kg opponent with an uchimata. Photo Credit: Lou DiGesare / www.realjudo.net |
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(Colorado Springs, Colo.)
–
U.S.
athletes earned gold medals in five of 10 divisions
contested on Saturday at the Rendez-Vous Canada, a USA Judo Senior B-Level
Point Tournament in
Montreal
,
Canada
.
Kenny Hashimoto
(San Jose
,
Calif.
/ USA
Judo National Training Site at San Jose State University) won his second
consecutive Rendez-Vous title in the 66kg division, defeating top-ranked
American Taylor Takata (Colorado
Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training
Center) in the finals.
Hashimoto was down by a yuko (quarter-point), but when
Takata went in for a harai goshi (hip throw), Hashimoto countered him with a
throw for ippon to win gold.
Earlier in the day, Hashimoto earned a key win for the
Americans when he beat again came back from being down by points to throw Sasha Mehmedovic (CAN) for ippon. Mehmedovic, a seventh-place finisher at the
World Championships in September, beat Takata in the finals of the U.S. Open
last week as well as defeating World Team member Justin Flores (Glenville, N.Y. / USA Judo National Training Site at the
Jason Morris Judo Center) in the quarter-finals.
Flores
dropped down to the loser’s pool where he beat Nate Torra
(El Cerrito
,
Calif.
/ NYAC / East Bay Judo Institute) and Olivier LeMasse (CAN) to advance to
the bronze medal match against his JMJC teammate 18-year-old Jeremy Liggett (NYAC). Liggett earned his first career win against
Flores
by a yuko in overtime.
The
81kg division included a rematch of last week’s U.S. Open final when
now-top-ranked Travis Stevens
(Glenville, N.Y. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo
Center) and Aaron Cohen (Buffalo
Grove, Ill. / NYAC / Cohen’s Judo) fought in the semifinals.
Both
athletes were scoreless until Stevens threw Cohen with an uchimata (inner thigh
throw) a minute and a half into overtime.
Stevens
then advanced to the finals where he went the full five minutes with Harry St. Leger (
Brooklyn
,
N.Y.
/ NYAC / Starrett Judo) before winning by two kokas (smallest points).
Cohen,
meanwhile, lost in the bronze medal match to Kalem Kachur (CAN) who St. Leger beat in the quarter-finals.
Valerie Gotay (Harlingen, Texas / USA Judo
National Training Site at Harlingen) won her third consective Rendez-Vous
title in the 57kg division, beating Carrie
Chandler (Glenville, N.Y. / NYAC / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason
Morris Judo Center) in the final.
Chandler
, a two-time
National Champion in the 57kg division moved back up after spending three years
fighting down to 52kg after the World Championships in September.
Gotay
dominated the two minute match, leading by a yuko before throwing
Chandler
for a resounding
ippon with an o soto gari (outer leg throw). A Pan Am Champion in the 52kg division,
Chandler
is expected to be Gotay’s closest challenger at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team
Trials for Judo, June 13-14 in
Las
Vegas
,
Nev.
Janine Nakao (
San Jose
,
Calif.
/
USA
Judo National Training Site at
San Jose
State
University
) and Hana
Carmichael (
Wellington
,
Fla.
/ Budokan Judo) both placed fifth
in the 57kg division.
Radu Brestyan (
Wakefield
,
Mass.
/ USA Judo National Team FORCE) and Nick Delpopolo (Glenville, N.Y. / NYAC /
USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center) had a
rematch of their U.S. Open 73kg bronze medal match with Brestyan taking the win
in the gold medal final by an early waza-ari (half-point).
Chuck Jefferson (
San
Jose
,
Calif.
/ USA Judo National
Training Site at San Jose State University) and Michael Eldred (Fruitland, Idaho / Western Idaho Judo Institute) each
won bronze medals in the 73kg division.
Jefferson,
who lost to Pawel Zydak (POL) earlier
in the day, defeated Bill Shanahan (
Glenville
,
N.Y.
/
USA
Judo National Training Site at the
Jason
Morris
Judo
Center
) in the bronze medal match. Eldred,
who lost to Brestyan in the preliminary rounds, defeated Pawel to win bronze.
The
women’s 44kg division was a three-person round-robin with an all-American
contingent of teenagers.
Sixteen-year-old Taylor Ibera (
Honolulu
,
Hawaii
/
Hawaii
Tenri) won the division, defeating both Veronica Prado (
Coral Springs
,
Fla.
/
USA
Judo National Training Site at
North Miami
) and
13-year-old Katelyn Bouyssou (
Hope
,
R.I.
/ Mayo Quanchi Judo).
Prado
was controlling the match against Ibera, going in for an uchimata in the last
minute, but Ibera ran Prado backwards to win by ippon (instant win).
Ibera
fought Bouyssou in the next match, countering Bouyssou’s drop seoi nage
(dropping shoulder throw) for a yuko score.
Bouyssou
won the final match, and the silver medal, when she beat Prado by a yuko and a
koka.
Although Rick Hawn (
Wakefield
,
Mass.
/ USA Judo National Team FORCE) earned the top finish for an American in
the 90kg division, placing second after a final round loss by ippon to Alexandre Emond (CAN), the biggest news
of the day looked to be Garry St. Leger’s
(Brooklyn, N.Y. / NYAC / Starrett Judo) defeat of former World medalist
Brian Olson
(Longmont, Colo. / NYAC / USA Judo
National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center) in the repechage.
Both
St.
Leger and Olson, who began his comeback bid for a
fourth Olympic Team with a gold medal at the U.S. Open, lost in the preliminary
rounds to Wiktor Tworzydlo (POL) and
met up in the repechage.
Last
week Olson beat St. Leger at the Open, but
St.
Leger earned the upset this week when he threw Olson with an o soto gari for
ippon en route to winning the bronze medal.
Nineteen-year-old Jake Larsen (
Santa
Rosa
,
Calif.
/
Redwood
Coast
Judo) also fought for bronze, losing to Tworzydlo to place fifth.
Nina Cutro-Kelly (San Antonio, Texas /
Universal Judo) earned the day’s most impressive win on the women’s side,
defeating six-time Pan Am medalist Amy
Cotton (CAN) in the semifinals of the 78kg division.
With
the score tied at a yuko a piece, Cutro-Kelly threw Cotton for a yuko in
overtime after having lost to Cotton at the U.S. Open last week.
Cutro-Kelly
lost in the final, however, by a yuko to 2007 Pan Am medalist Marylise Levesque (CAN) who also beat Cutro-Kelly
in the bronze medal match at the Open.
Rhonda Morrell-Pruitt (
Centerville
,
Ohio
/ Shudokan Judo) also won a medal in the 78kg division. After losing to Levesque in the semifinals,
Morrell-Pruitt beat Rebecca Pretious
(CAN) by ippon.
Katie Mocco (
Glenville
,
N.Y.
/ NYAC /
USA
Judo National Training Site at the
Jason
Morris
Judo
Center
) also fought
for bronze, but placed fifth after losses to both Levesque and Cotton. Mocco fought both players last week as well,
beating Levesque, but getting pinned by Cotton in the final.
Marti Malloy (
San Jose
,
Calif.
/ USA Judo National Trianing Site at
San Jose State University) placed second in the 63kg division, losing in
the finals to Jennie Bonsant (CAN) who
pinned Malloy with sankaku (triangle hold).
Bonsant
also beat Malloy in the second round of the U.S. Open last week, but lost to Kayla Harrison (
Wakefield
,
Mass.
/
USA
Judo National Team FORCE) in
the final.
This
time, Bonsant armbarred
Harrison
in the
semifinal.
Harrison
then beat Emilie Claude-Leroux (CAN) by
ippon to win bronze.
U.S.
Open Champion Heidi Moore (
Englewood
,
Colo.
/
Denver
Judo) lost in the first round of the +78kg division, but won her next three
matches to earn the bronze medal.
Lorey Edwards (
Lorain
,
Ohio
/
Chu
To
Bu West) fought for bronze in the +78kg division, but lost, placing fifth.
Nick
Kossor (Glenville, N.Y. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris
Judo Center) was the highest placing American in the 60kg division, losing to Gonzalo
Ibanez (CAN) in the bronze medal final to place fifth.
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