| Member News
December 21, 2007
USA
Judo Magical 2008 Junior Olympics
Goes International
In
yet another first, USA Judo is proud to announce that the 2008 USA Judo
National Junior Olympic Championships to be held at July 25-27 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World®will feature an international division
following the two days of National Championships.
In
a move to create new competition opportunities for Junior Olympic participants, as well as provide an
opportunity for more international
Junior competition within the United States, the USA Judo leadership has moved
the national age divisions to Friday and Saturday, July 25-26 and the new
International Division has been added on
Sunday, July 27.
"This
is a great addition. Once we began to
study the fact that the Junior U.S.
Open,
which normally features a good number of international teams, was being held the previous weekend it seemed like
a natural fit with Orlando being in such close proximity to the Junior Pen in
Fort Lauderdale,'' said Lance Nading,
USA Judo Board member.
The
third day of competition will be open to competitors from both the
United States
as well as other nations in the Intermediate 2, Juvenile A, Juvenile B and
IJF-Junior divisions which include
athletes ranging born between 1989 and 1997.
"We
are continuing to strive for ways to increase our interaction and support of
our international friends and we felt that offering junior athletes from other
countries an opportunity to be a part of one of our best junior competitions
while been able to visit Disney was the right decision at the right time,''
added Fletcher Thornton, USA Judo
Board Member and General Secretary.
 The
event will be known as JO International and will be open to interested
countries on a first-come, first-serve basis.
"We
are sort of limited in the number of participants that we will be able to
accept this year as the event will be limited to Sunday's competition.
Therefore, we will first concentrate on inviting our neighboring friends from
the Pan American Judo Union and then extend our invitation to the rest of the
world once we see their response," stated Jose H. Rodriguez, USA Judo CEO.
In
making this announcement, USA Judo President, Dr.
Ron
Tripp
stated: "USA Judo will continue to respond to the
changes and emphasis that the new IJF leadership has requested of us in
becoming bigger players within the international arena. This new concept of the
JO International is another way for us to open the
USA
competition arena to the world
and what better place to host a junior event than at Disney!"
For
hotel reservation please visit www.usjudo.org/2008DisneyHotel.asp.
See
you at the 2008 Junior Olympic Championships!
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