Member News
July 28, 2006
Junior World Trials Men’s Lightweight Preview
(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – The first USA Judo Junior World Trials will be held from 3 – 5 p.m. Saturday July 29 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Winners of the Trials will compete at the Junior World Championships, Oct. 15-19 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Athletes are invited to the Junior World Trials based upon their status on the IJF-Junior (athletes born 1987 or later) rosters. Athletes are ranked throughout the year and receive points for placings in domestic and international events. Should any of the top four athletes decline participation, the subsequent ranked at
At the Trials, the #1 and #4 seeds will compete, followed by the #2 and #3 seeds. The winners of these matches will then fight. If the #1 seed wins, he or she will be named to the team. If the #1 seed is not the winner of the Trials, he or she will fight the Trials winner in a sudden-death contest. The winner of that match will then be named to the team.
The following is a preview of the men’s lightweight competition:
60kg
Jeremy Liggett (West Glenville, N.Y./NYAC/Jason Morris Judo Center), the #1 seed in this division, is one of the most exciting junior athletes to watch in action, often winning with spectacular textbook throws.
One of the most successful young athletes at the senior level, 17-year-old Liggett is the top-ranked senior at 60kg, moving into the slot following a silver medal win at the 2006 Senior Pan Ams in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For as much as he’s a statistical favorite though, Liggett isn’t immune to upsets, losing in the first round of this year’s Senior Nationals and placing third at last Sunday’s U.S. Judo Federation Junior National Championships. Expect tenacity out of Liggett, though, because even after failing to place at Nationals, he still came back and beat the National Champion twice in the Pan Am Trials to earn his slot on the Team.
Interestingly, that National Champion was #2-ranked junior Rafael Ramos (Union City, N.J./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site). The two fought in early rounds at the USJF Juniors earlier this week with Liggett taking the win by ippon (instant win) in less than two minutes.
At the same event, Liggett also defeated #3 Aaron Kunihiro (Covina, Calif./San Gabriel Judo) and #4 Miguel Ballesteros (North Lauderdale, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site).
Kunihiro, a 2005 Senior Pan Am silver medalist at 55kg, made the move up to 60kg later last year, but has struggled to find success at his new weight, though his past demonstrations of excellent technique could allow him have a good fight in his first-round match against Ramos.
Ballesteros, Liggett’s opponent, is a last minute addition to the line-up after Jean-Pierre Durand (North Lauderdale, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site) withdrew from the event Thursday. Fourteen-year-old Ballesteros also is relatively new to the division, but the 2005 Pan American Infantile Champion fought well in last week’s match-up with Liggett.
66kg
AJ Silverman (Scotia, N.Y./Jason Morris Judo Center) is the top seed in this division, but the 2006 Pan American Junior bronze medalist is faced with a series of tough contenders for the Junior World Team slot.
Silverman’s first match will be against #4 Francisco Alejandro (North Lauderdale, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site). Alejandro will surely be the wild card in this series. The former #1, Alejandro has never lost to Silverman, but he hasn’t been seen in competition in nearly a year having been in the Dominican Republic attending college.
The #2 seed goes to Jeff Fong (Houston, Texas/Diamondback Judo). Fong will likely be a question mark to his competitors. While most of the Junior World Trials participants have been frequent fixtures on the junior circuits for years, this 19-year-old made his first appearance on the Junior Roster after a third place finish at Northglenn, followed by a fifth-place finish at the Senior Nationals that included a defeat of Silverman in the repechage. Fong also has beaten Ross Nakamura (Mission Hills, Calif./Valley Judo Institute), the #3 seed and High School Champion who he will meet in the first round.
Fong, Silverman and Nakamura each have competed in the Junior Triple Crown events, but none of the three have fought during the series. Nakamura won a bronze medal at the USA Judo Junior Olympics (July 8-9 in San Jose, Calif.); Fong won the U.S. Judo Association Junior Nationals two weeks ago in Boca Raton; and Silverman finished third at Sunday’s USJF Juniors Nationals. Alejandro opted not to compete in the last three weeks of junior events to focus on the Trials,
73kg
If you were to pick any division and sell tickets to this set of matches as a stand-alone event, 73kg would be it.
For all of 2005, Bobby Lee (Lauderhill, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site) was the top dog in this division. The 17-year-old won each of the three Junior National Championships, the Junior U.S. Open and earned a fifth-place finish at his first Senior European event, the B-Level British Open in December.
But then the rumbling started. There was another kid looking to take over at 73kg – Nick Delpopolo (Glenville, N.Y./Cranford/Jason Morris Judo Center), a 17-year-old who showed up to Jimmy Pedro’s tournament in February and threw #2 Senior Radu Brestyan (Medway, Mass./Pedro’s Judo Center) for a win by ippon.
The talk continued after Delpopolo won a bronze medal at the New York Open. Brestyan won their semi-final match, sending Delpopolo to fight for bronze, but the teenager was determined to reach the podium and threw six-time World Cup medalist Yoel Razvozov (ISR) for a beautiful ippon to do so.
Lee and Delpopolo finally fought for the first time at the High School Nationals in March with Delpopolo pushing the new mat boundaries (literally) and throwing Lee in the gold medal final.
The two were on opposite sides of the bracket at the Senior Nationals and did not fight; however Lee won the bronze medal while Delpopolo finished fifth.
A rematch occurred Sunday with Delpopolo coming out ahead by a koka (smallest points) earned on a stepping out of bounds penalty by Lee.
Coming into Trials, Lee has an advantage with the #1 seed. If Delpopolo wants to earn his spot on the team he’ll potentially need two wins over Lee to do it.
But let’s not draw foregone conclusions – there are two other athletes waiting in the wings looking to throw a wrench in the whole Bobby vs. Nick rivalry. Lee’s first match will be against Michael Demarrias (Northglenn, Colo./Boulder Judo Training Center) who earned his #4 seed through a gold medal win at the Junior Olympics. Meanwhile, Delpopolo will take on #3 Danny Satinsky (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Cohen’s Judo) who finished second behind Lee at the USJA event two weeks ago.
Either of these athletes have the potential to produce an upset against the top two and, if that happens, look for first-class crowd reaction as both hometown athlete Lee and Delpopolo, who will be traveling with a sizeable contingent from the JMJC, will have significant cheering sections.
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