Member News

April 23, 2008    

U.S. Paralympic Team Trials for Judo to be Held Saturday in Northglenn

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – With the 2008 Paralympic Games less than six months away, five blind and visually impaired judo players will begin their journey to Beijing on Saturday at the 2008 U.S. Paralympic Trials for Judo in Northglenn, Colo.

The Trials will be held during the Northglenn Championships, a USA Judo Senior E-Level Point Tournament at Northglenn High School, 601 W. 100th Pl., Northglenn, Colo.

Competition for junior athletes will begin at 9 a.m.  Trials will begin at 1 p.m. and will be immediately followed by the senior elite divisions in which the Trials participants also are scheduled to compete. 

Although the United States only qualified one women’s weight for the Games, former World Team members Lisamaria Martinez (Union City, Calif. / Stanford Judo) and Jordan Mouton (Houston, Texas / Diamondback Judo Club) will fight off in the 70kg division.

Mouton competed on the 2006 World Team as a 52kg player and at 57kg at the 2007 Worlds.  When her division was cancelled at the Parapan American Games – the final qualifying tournament for Beijing, Mouton moved up to 63kg in the hopes of earning a slot for the United States. 

Unfortunately, Mouton missed the cut, but Martinez qualified the 70kg division with her silver medal at the Parapans and fifth-place finish at the World Championships.

As the athlete who qualified the division, Martinez has a distinct advantage going into the Trials.  She needs just one win against Mouton to punch her ticket to Beijing while Mouton needs two wins – and no losses – to upset Martinez.

The four men’s players each will be uncontested at the Trials and are as follows:

• Scott Jones (Little Rock, Ark. / Little Rock Judo / 81kg)
• Andre Watson (Upper Darby, Pa. / Liberty Bell Judo / 90kg)
• Myles Porter (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center / 100kg)
• Greg Dewall (Chico, Calif. / +100kg)

Jones is the only returning member of the 2004 Team and has moved down from 90kg to 81kg since Athens.  A three-time World Team member, Jones will be looking to fight for his first international medal.

Watson, a child psychologist, was coaching blind children at a sports camp in Milwaukee for his former sport of goalball when he was introduced by the other coaches to judo.  Watson took to the sport naturally and by 2005 was competing in this first international event – the IBSA Pan American Games.  After his division also was dropped from the Parapan American Games, Watson’s hopes for a trip to Beijing were thought to be gone, but a recent withdrawal from the Games by another country meant Watson will be competing at his first Paralympic Games. 

Porter, a resident athlete at the Olympic Training Center, was a former football player at the University of Toledo who took judo as a class to fill a credit and took to the sport naturally, placing fifth at his first World Championships in 2006.  One of only four blind athletes ever to be ranked among sighted players, Porter nearly upset a two-time Olympian at the USA Judo Senior National Championships two weeks ago. 

Dewall is another Paralympic rookie, but he had success early, placing fifth at the 2007 World Championships where he narrowly missed a bronze medal.