Member News

March 18, 2006

Reser Wins Silver at Dutch Open

Ryan Reser (Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Olympic Training Center/73kg) won a silver medal Saturday at the Dutch Open in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the sixth World Cup event of this year’s European Tour.  

After spending most of the past week sick, Reser arrived in Rotterdam Wednesday nearly a kilo underweight.

“I was a little worried today. I’d felt weak during all my practices and so I wasn’t sure how things were going to go,” Reser said. “I wasn’t expecting to do well, but I guess that’s when you always do your best when you don’t have expectations.”

Ryan opened his day with early wins against Peng Sun (CHN) by two kokas (smallest points) and Craig Ewers (GBR) by yuko (quarter point).

In the quarter-finals Reser met Henri Schoeman (NED) who finished in fifth at the 2005 World Championships and won bronze in February at the Super World Cup in Hamburg.  Reser won the match on a koka to advance to the semi-finals where he defeated 2001 World bronze medalist Krzystof Wilkomirski (POL) on a penalty.   

After a break, Reser returned for the gold medal match against Bryan van Dijk (NED), a six-time World Cup medalist.  Van Dijk scored waza-ari (half point) early and Reser was held scoreless for the remainder of the match.

“I was sweeping about 30 seconds into the match and he just threw me for waza-ari.  After that he pretty much ran for the rest and I couldn’t catch him,” Reser said.

Reser’s next stop on the Tour will be next week’s Sweden Open in Borras where he will be joined by his OTC teammate Kirk Hoffmann (Colorado Springs, Colo./+100kg).

“My goal next week is just to go in with the same intensity I had this week and hopefully I’ll do well,” Reser said.