Member News

June 11, 2007

Grace Ohashi to Fight Off Against Haiti for Final Pan Am Games Slot

Ohashi (white) fought former Pan Am Champion Carrie Chandler in the finals en routeto winning a silver  medal at her first Senior Nationals in April.

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Grace Ohashi (Colorado Springs, Colo. / USA Judo National Training Site at the Olympic Training Center) will compete in a best-of-three fight-off for a slot to compete in the Pan American Games against a Hatian player in the 52kg division  on Friday in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 

Following the Pan American Championships in Montreal on May 24-25, Team USA qualified 13 of 14 weight divisions for the Pan American Games, July 19-22 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Each weight division at the Pan Am Games was allotted between eight and nine entries through a qualification system that included results from the 2007 Pan Am Championships and the 2006 Pan Ams in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

At the conclusion of the 2007 Pan Ams, there were ties between nations for qualifying slots in 10 of the divisions, so those countries were given the opportunity to participate in a special fight-off in Santo Domingo.

The event will be only the third international tournament for 18-year-old Ohashi who finished fifth at the 2006 U.S. Open and 2007 British Open.  Ohashi, who finished second at the USA Judo Senior National Championships in April, will likely compete against Manouchka Hogarth who represented Haiti at the last two Pan American Championships. 

The United States was originally slated to be represented in the fight-off by Franchesca Durand (Coral Springs, Fla. / USA Judo National Training Site at North Miami), the #1 U.S. athlete in the division who competed at the Pan Am Championships and was scheduled to represent the United States at the Pan American Games and the World Championships, Sept. 16-19 in Rio de Janeiro.  Durand withdrew from the event at the last minute, declining the slot on Monday due to personal reasons.  The slot was offered to #2 Carrie Chandler (Glenville, N.Y. / NYAC / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center) who also declined as she is recovering from shoulder surgery conducted less than two weeks ago.  As Ohashi is the #3 athlete in the division, she was then offered the slot on Monday and accepted.

Other fight-offs are slated to include:

Women

48kg:     Dominican Republic, Venezuela and El Salvador will have the opportunity to fight off for two slots

57kg:     Canada, Venezuela, Mexico and Argentina will have the opportunity to fight off for three slots

63kg:     Colombia, Uruguay, Guatemala and Haiti will have the opportunity to fight off for one slot

70kg:     Haiti and Venezuela will have the opportunity to fight off for one slots

Men

60kg:     Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia and Puerto Rico will have the opportunity to fight off for one slot

66kg:      Argentina, Chile, Netherlands Antilles, Dominican Republic, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia and Haiti will have the opportunity to fight off for two slots

73kg:      Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Haiti will have the opportunity to fight off for three slots

81kg:     Chile, El Salvador, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Dominican Republic and Aruba will have the opportunity to fight off for one slot

100kg:    Puerto Rico, Mexico and El Salvador will have the opportunity to fight off for two slots

* The list above is not the list of countries confirmed to participate, only those that will have the opportunity to fight off for Pan Am Games slots.