Member News

July 22, 2007

Ryan Reser Named Outstanding Male Judoka at Pan American Games  

Ryan Reser receives his award from PJU President Jaime Casanova.

( Rio de Janeiro , Brazil ) – Ryan Reser ( Colorado Springs , Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center) may have finished competing on Saturday when he won a gold medal in the 73kg division, but the Pan American Games weren’t over just yet as he received two awards from the Pan American Judo Union on Sunday evening.  

Reser, whose Saturday repertoire included three matches that he ended with huge throws for ippon (instant win) in a minute or less and two that were six and 18 seconds each, received the Oustanding Male Judoka Award as well as the Ippon Trophy for the best throw of the Games.  

Among his four victories was a final round upset of 2004 Olympic medalist Leandro Guilheiro (BRA) where Reser threw the Brazilian in front of a boisterous home crowd for ippon 60 seconds into the match.  

“It’s an honor that the PJU decided to recognize me with both of these awards,” Reser said.  “I had an awesome tournament, but there were also lots of very tough players here in all of the divisions, but particularly the guys in my division were all really tough and definitely helped push me to fight my hardest.”