Member News

March 21, 2006

U.S. Juniors Depart for Kindai Cup in Tokyo

A team of five junior athletes will compete at the Kindai Cup in Tokyo, Japan on March 26.

The athletes, ranging from 13-15-years-old will compete in one of the most prestigious international junior events as last year’s event drew more than 900 young judo players comprising more than 170 teams.

Each team consists of five athletes: two 66kg, one 81kg and two open weight players.  All teams fight first in a round robin against two other teams with the winning team of each pool advancing to a 64-team draw. 

The Kindai Cup is held annually at the Tokyo Budokan and is sponsored by the All-Japan Judo Federation and the Baseball Magazine Co. Ltd.

Miguel Ballesteros (Miami, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site) and Andrew Porras (North Lauderdale, Fla./Ki-Itsu-Sai) will represent the United States in the 66kg division.  Ballesteros has done well in Japan previously, winning last year’s Tokyo Youth International.  The 14-year-old also won gold and was named the Outstanding Competitor at last year’s Pan American Infantil Championships at 58kg.  Porras is the top-ranked 53kg athlete in his age division, having won the Triple Crown (three Junior National Championship titles) and the U.S. Junior Open in 2005.

Christopher Roman (Stone Mountain, Ga./Waka Mu Sha), a bronze medalist in the 64kg division of the 2005 U.S. Junior Open, will compete at 81kg in Japan.

Kevin Duarte (Baldwin Park, Calif./Mojica Judo), a Junior National silver medalist, will compete in the open weight division along with Ian Daube (Poway, Calif./Judo America) who won eight matches during a friendly tournament in Japan last year.

The Americans are being coached by Humberto Lopez (Miami, Fla.), who also served on the U.S. coaching staff of the 2004 Junior World Championships.

“This team has a lot of potential to do well in Tokyo,” Lopez said.  “Several of these guys have had great international results and done well in Japan in the past, so we’re definitely looking forward to seeing how they do this weekend.”