Member News

June 6, 2006

U.S. Women Place Third in Team Competition at Tre-Torri

The U.S. Women won a bronze medal Sunday at the Tre-Torri International in Porto Sant Elpidio, Italy.

Although the team was at a disadvantage with only five competitors instead of the traditional seven as they didn’t have an athlete in either the 78kg or +78kg divisions, Team USA finished in third place alongside Germany and behind Canada and Slovenia.

The women’s division was a round robin, so each of the five athletes had the opportunity to compete in four matches with one of the team’s highlights being their victory over Great Britain.  With three wins for each country, the contest came down to the 52kg division in which Franchesca Durand (Coral Springs, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site/52kg) had tied her match against Jodie Carter. 

Because each of the three wins had by each country were by ippon (instant win, similar to a knockout in boxing), Durand and Carter fought again to break the tie.

This time Durand came out the decisive victor, armbarring Carter for ippon.

The women’s team also included Jeanette Rodriguez (Margate, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site/48kg), Marti Malloy (San Jose, Calif./San Jose State University/57kg), Kristen Allan (Springfield, Va./Sport Judo/63kg) and Kayla Harrison (Middletown, Ohio/Renshuden/70kg).

“All of the girls go four more matches and we worked on things from the first day.  They all fought the way we wanted them to fight and there were some huge improvements,” said Jimmy Pedro (Methuen, Mass.), head coach of the U-23 USA Judo Elite Team. 

In the men’s team event, the Americans also began each match with two automatic losses because there was no American in either the 100kg or +100kg divisions. 

Although there wasn’t an American slated for 66kg either, Team USA orchestrated a trade with Canada in which Travis Stevens (San Jose, Calif./San Jose State University/81kg) fought up to 90kg for Team Canada while Canadian Michal Popiel competed for the United States at 66kg. 

In the first match against Sweden, Popiel won his match while Bobby Lee (Lauderhill, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site/73kg) was thrown for ippon with a kata guruma (shoulder wheel throw).  In the 81kg division, Harry St. Leger (Brooklyn, N.Y./Starrett Judo) threw his opponent for ippon with a tae guruma (hand wheel throw).  Harry’s twin brother Garry St. Leger (Brooklyn, N.Y./Starrett Judo/90kg) also picked up a win by ippon, throwing the Swede with a ko uchi gari (minor inner reaping). 

The contest came down to the final match in which Rafael Ramos (North Lauderdale, Fla./North Miami USA Judo National Training Site/60kg) lost on a shido in the last 15 seconds. 

Team USA met Germany in the next round.  Ramos picked up an automatic win as the Germans didn’t have a 60kg player.  Popiel and Garry St. Leger also won each of their matches.  Yuko Sin (Scotia, N.Y./Jason Morris Judo Center/81kg) was thrown for ippon with a kata guruma and Radu Brestyan (Medway, Mass./Pedro’s Judo Center/73kg) lost a close match by a koka. 

Following the loss to Germany, the U.S. men were eliminated from competition.  Germany won the team gold; Canada won team silver and Great Britain and Sweden each won bronze.

The Team will stay in Italy through Friday to participate in an international training camp.

"This trip was perfect trip for this age group in terms of experience, the number of matches these athletes had and the level of competition," Pedro said.  "The training camp is perfect so far too.  There's about 100-125 on the mat and they're getting a good flavor of the European style of judo.  The team has bonded very well with one another and the staff and they're super excited to be part of something I think.  They're eating everything up and they can't get enough knowledge."