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Travis Stevens takes bronze
At Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

October 18, 2011 – USA Judo’s Travis Stevens, a fighter likely to represent the United States at the Olympics next year in London, took a bronze medal at the super competitive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that ended today.

Big ranking points and big dollars lure the best fighters in the world to this tournament. A combined purse of $200,000 went to athletes who won a spot on the podium. The points are critical to athletes hoping to qualify for a spot on an Olympic team.

Stevens, 81 kg, (Team FORCE, Wakefield, Mass.) captured the bronze medal in the 2nd day of the three-day competition, going 3-1 to the podium in a very deep field of competitors.

In the first round, Stevens beat Micha Egger from Switzerland by 2 shidos. In the 2nd round he faced Antoine Valois-Fortier from Canada and got up by 2 shidos and then threw the Canadian with Harai Goshi for waza-ari and the win.

In the quarterfinals, Stevens faced Elkhan Rajabli from Azerbaijan. After one minute, the opponent dropped onto his back sumi gaeshi and Travis pinned him for ippon with his special split-the-legs technique.

In the semi-final, Stevens looked to avenge his loss to Guillaume Elmont of the Nederlands, who beat him at the 1st round of the World Championships in Paris earlier this year. Unfortunately this uneventful match ended the same way as it did at the Worlds with Stevens losing, two shidos to one, despite making most of the attacks in the match. Elmont went on to win the silver medal.

In addition to Stevens’ bronze, other judoka placing from the U.S. included Marti Malloy, 57 kg (San Jose State University, San Jose, CA), Nick Delpopolo, 73 kg (Jason Morris Judo Center, Glenville, NY) and Kayla Harrison, 78 kg (Team FORCE, Wakefield, Mass.), who took 5th place slots.

For complete results, click HERE.