Member News

September 14, 2007

Rousey Goes for Gold on Second Day of World Championships  

Ronda Rousey, 70kg

( Rio de Janeiro , Brazil ) – They always say “go big or go home” and Ronda Rousey ( Wakefield , Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE) should have a taste of just that in her first match in the 70kg division on Friday at the World Championships when she opens her day, after a first-round bye, with a second round against Asuka Oka (JPN), the reigning Asian Champion and the third-ranked player in the division in the world.  

A win there would send her to face the winner of a match between Rasa Sraka (SLO) and Ylenia Scapin (ITA), a two-time Olympic and two-time World medalist who Sraka defeated at this year’s Moscow Super World Cup.  Also in Rousey’s pool is teenager Mayra Aguiar (BRA) who she beat in the finals of the Pan American Games in Rio in July.  

Marti Malloy, 63kg

Competing in Rousey’s former 63kg division, Marti Malloy ( San Jose , Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at San Jose State ) has a first-round match against Asian Championships medalist Ok Song Hong (DPR).  Malloy may need to win early and often to stay alive in this game as the favorite in her pool is top-ranked World and Olympic medalist Urska Zolnir (SLO).   

Travis Stevens, 81kg

Travis Stevens (Glenville, N.Y. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center) has a first-round bye in the 81kg division and a second round match against Eddie Cooper of the Solomon Islands.  Stevens’ next round would pit him against Giuseppe Maddaloni (ITA), the 2000 Olympic Champion at 73kg.  Maddaloni has moved up in weight since then, but went back down to 73kg to place seventh at Paris earlier this season.  Stevens has the potential to produce big wins as he’s shown throughout the season, including a defeat of the reigning Japanese National Champion earlier this season and the upset of 2004 Olympic medalist Flavio Canto (BRA) at the Pan Am Games.   

Stevens is in for a long day, though.  In a 69-person division, even with a first round bye, he’s looking at four wins to make it out of his pool. 

Rick Hawn ( Wakefield , Mass. / USA Judo National Team FORCE / 90kg), a 2004 Olympian at 81kg, has

Rick Hawn, 90kg

what could be the “best potential day” – on paper anyway – with a first-round match against Ramizidoin Saidov (UZB) and a second against the winner of Burhan Kocan (TUR) and Guillermo Urriola (CHI).  A third round would likely be against European medalist Roberto Meloni (ITA).   

Also in Hawn’s pool is reigning World Champion Hiroshi Izumi (JPN) who he could face in the quarter-finals.  Other athletes to watch out for include Mark Huizinga (NED), a three-time Olympic medalist on the top of the draw; and Ilias Iliadis (GRE), also in the top of the draw, who became one of Greece’s most loved athletes when he won the 2004 Olympic Games and continues to hold the #1 world ranking although he lost to Izumi in the finals of the 2005 Worlds.