Member News

September 23, 2007

Birmingham World Cup Day 2 Results    

Team USA was winless during the second day of competition on Sunday at the Birmingham World Cup in Great Britain .  

Five-time Pan American medalist Aaron Cohen ( Buffalo Grove , Ill. / NYAC / Cohen’s Judo / 81kg) fought 2004 Junior World Champion Erekli Kopaliani (RUS) after a first-round bye and was thrown for ippon (instant win) midway through the match.  Kopaliani lost his next match to Anthony Fritsch (FRA), eliminating Cohen. 

“My fight didn’t go to plan. I did feel good in the match but I made a silly mistake and was thrown. I thought I could have done better, but I will learn from this fight. It is difficult for us to travel so far and fight against such different styles of judo, but it has been really good for us to get to know the different fighters and there has been a great atmosphere and the crowd has been fantastic,” Cohen said.  “I am now moving my focus onto the Super World Cup in Rotterdam where I will be looking to step up my game.” 

Shintaro Higashi (Scarsdale, N.Y. / NYAC / Kokushi Budo Institute of New York / 100kg) won his first Senior National title in April and made his European Tour debut on Sunday when he fought 2005 European Champion Christophe Humbert (FRA) who beat Higashi by ippon in the second minute of the match.  Humbert lost in the third round to Prezmyslaw Matyaszek (POL).   

“I had a really tough first round. I lost in the last two minutes, which I was disappointed with. The competitiveness at this event has been unbelievable,” Higashi said. “It has been good for all of us to get this sort of fight exposure. It gives us a good idea of what we need to do before the Olympics.” 

Daniel McCormick ( Wakefield , Mass. / USA Judo National Team FORCE / +100kg) scored once with a koka (smallest points) on eventual Champion and 14-time World Cup medalist Martin Padar (EST), but Padar dominated the fast-paced match, earning yuko (quarter-point) and waza-ari (half-point) scores before beating McCormick by ippon. 

“I felt a lot better in my second fight (repechage), I felt looser and I was moving a lot more.   I expected to be pulled back into the repechage, as I knew the guy was really good. I was pleased with my performance but obviously it is a disappointment to lose.”  

Roger Mazzella ( Natick , Mass. / Tohoku / 90kg) was down by a waza-ari (half-point) before losing by ippon to Dmitri Gerasimenko (RUS) who subsequently lost in the next round, eliminating Mazzella.