|
 2000
Pan American Judo Championships
ORLANDO, USA -
10-12 NOVEMBER, 2000
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out our Pan Am photo gallery »
By: Matt Carter
Day
1 (10 Nov, 2000), Day 2, Day
3
Women -63kg, -70kg, -78kg, +78kg
Men -81kg, -90kg, -100kg, +100kg
Kissimmee, USA – The 2000 Pan American Judo Championships
were held just outside of Orlando, Florida in the town of Kissimme,
home to the world famous Walt Disney World and Universal Studios
theme parks. Jointly hosted by USA Judo and Florida 2012 (the bid
committee for 2012 Olympic Summer Games), the Opening Ceremony of
the championships featured speeches by the President of Florida
2012, USA Judo President Yosh Uchhida and PJU President Jaime Casanova.
There were only 128 competitors representing 18 countries this year,
making the event somewhat smaller than usual. This was due in part
to the fact that the championships came some two months after the
Sydney Olympics. Noticeably absent was Pan American powerhouse Cuba,
who did not send a team due to visa problems. Brazil also failed
to send a men's team - in fact, only one male and three female Brazilians
took part. This left much of the field wide open and paved the way
for a number of players to take medals that might not have otherwise.
Women
-63kg
The -63kg category was the largest group of the 4 women's classes
being contested on the first day, but still featured only 6 players.
Two of these however, were Sydney Olympians, Vania Ishii (BRA) and
Sophie Roberge (CAN). Ishii, who finished a very respectable 7th
in Sydney. Both players had had a lot of success in the Pan American
tournaments, owning 3 Pan Am medals each. Interestingly, Roberge
was the gold medallist at the 1999 Pan American Judo Championships
held last November in Monte Video, Uruguay,while Ishii was the reinging
Pan American Games champion.
Roberge looked strong in her opening fight and was coming off a
gold medal performance at Rendezvous Canada 2000 two weeks previously.
She handily defeated Marta Cavila (CHI) with some excellent groundwork
to score ippon with kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame. In the semi-final
she met Ishii. The Brazillian champion came on to the mats with
a determined look in her eyes that meant business. And she delivered.
In a hard fought contest she beat Roberge at her own game with an
osae-komi win for ippon. Roberge went on the win the bronze with
a skillful rollover into a juji-gatame armlock that caused a less
experienced Cindy Imai (USA) to submit. Ishii fought Jessica Garcia
(PUR) in the final, scoring a quick yuko with a swift ashi-barai.
She followed this up with another yuko from seoinage from which
she continued into kesa-gatame for the ten point win.
Men
–81kg
The men's -81kg category featured some tough competitors including
French-born Uruguayan, Alvaro Paseyro who placed a strong 5th at
the Sydney Olympics; 1999 Pan American silver medallist Ariel Sganga
(ARG); and Ernst Laraque (HAI) who received a silver medal in the
–73kg category last year in Uruguay.
Sganga started his day with a victory over the former Romanian,
turned Canadian, Alexandru Ciupe. This was followed with a narrow
win over up and coming American, Aaron Cohen. Cohen had a lot of
fight in him, but just couldn't score on the Argentinian, loosing
by a shido. Cohen
had upset tournament favourite, Paseyro in his opening match with
a last second morote-gari. On the other side of the draw Daniel
Insua (VEN) beat Abederrman Brenes (PUR) by ippon and then defeated
Laraque (HAI). Laraque looked like he might win this one as he attempted
a nice reverse seoinage, but was coutered coming out of the throw
for ippon. Laraque was relegated to the repechage and went on to
fight Paseyro in an entertaining bronze medal match up between two
classy fighters. Paseyro had the better day and scored a lovely
ippon with a left-sided uchimata. Despite the bronze however, Paseyro
was viibly upset with his performance on the day, having felt that
he should have left the tournament with a gold medal. The second
bronze medal was awarded to Cohen who beat Brenes with a nice throw
for ippon.
The final
was a somewhat anticlimactic affair between Sganga and Insua. Early
in the match Sganga seemed to be in control, but relaxed momentarily
and was caught with a slow rolling kata-guruma, which gave the Venezualan
a waza-ari lead. The next few minutes saw the Argentinian looking
for penalties for Insua rather than attempting to throw him -- at
one point he even signaled to the referee that a waza-ari should
have been called. However, with 30 seconds left he found the score
he needed and threw Insua for ippon with a solid uchimata to add
a gold to his previous Pan Am silver.
Women
–70kg
With only 5 competitors, the –70kg category was fought
in a round robin format in which each player fought everyone else
once. The class of this category was clearly Marie Chisholm (CAN)
who won all of her matches in convincing fashion, begining with
a drop seoi-nage win over Nancy Acosta (MEX). Her next fight was
her toughest as she faced Sandra Bacher (USA). Chisholm worked hard
on the ground and rolled Bacher into a nice scoring position with
a sangaku-jime hold, but failed to turn into her opponent enough
to justify an osae-komi call. She scored later with a yuko, which
was enough to take the match. Her next fight was won on the ground
with a quick transition from standing to groundwork and she held
down Ivonne Perez (PUR) for ippon with kuzure-kesa-gatame. The final
match in the round robin was against a less experienced Denia Ponce
(HON) whom she defeated without much difficulty to finish with 35
out of a possible 40 points in the round robin. Bacher and Acosta
both finished with 20 points each, but Bacher received the silver
by virtue of her 20-second ippon victory over the Mexican, who was
awarded the bronze.
Men
–90kg
Although he hadn't competed since his 5th place showing at the
2000 Sydney Olympics, Canada's Keith Morgan was the favourite going
into the Men's –90kg category. Morgan produced some excellent
judo starting with a beautiful sasae-tsuri-komi-ashi in his first
contest against Jose Boissard (DOM). His next fight saw him take
on Andres Perez (VEN) who he threw for waza-ari with a drop seoinage,
which he followed through with kuzure-kesa-gatame for the ippon.
In the semi-finals he met Jose Goldschmied (MEX) and threw him with
a nice sumi-gaeshi that he continued into ne-waza and scored ippon
with yoko-shiho-gatame. The final pitted Morgan against a strong
Chilean named Gabriel Lama. Lama had scored ippon with a very nice
left-sided drop seoinage over Mark Fletcher (USA) to earn his spot
in the final. The Morgan-Lama fight was a scoreless draw, but did
not lack excitement. After catching a knee between the legs Morgan
sucked it up and fought on, nearly scoring with a big hiza-guruma
that Lama just managed to spin out of. When the five minutes was
up, Morgan clearly had the upper hand and deserved a unanimous decision,
however one judge felt otherwise and favoured the Chilean. Nevertheless
Morgan edged him out with a 2-1 split to win the title. The bronze
medals went to Alejandro Gonzalez (ARG) and Boissard (DOM), both
of whom won their finals in decisive fashion with quick ippon throws.
Women
–78kg
Like the –70kg
category, -78kg was also a small group and was decided through a
round robin competition. Venezuela, Canada, USA and Puerto Rico
were the four countries represented in the women's light heavyweight
division. Amy Cotton (CAN) who finished with a perfect reord of
30 points as she beat each of her three opponents with ippon scores
won the gold medal. Because of the round robin system there was
no actual final in any of the categories featuring fewer than 6
players, so the organizers held back one match in each round robin
category. Fittingly, the match that was held over in this category
turned out to be the deciding gold medal match between Cotton and
Amy Tong (USA). Cotton opened the scoring with a driving seoinage,
which she followed through into kuzure-kesa-gatame to win the fight.
Tong ended up with 17 points coming from previous victories over
Marianela Astudicco (VEN) and Zoriel Ortiz (PUR) to claim the silver
medal. Astudicco picked up the bronze thanks to an ippon she scored
against Ortiz.
Men –100kg
Without reigning Pan American Games champion and Olympic silver
medallist Nicolas Gill in attendance, and no entries from Cuba or
Brazil, US Olympian Ato Hand was the odds on favourite to take gold
in the men's light heavyweight division. Hand lived up to his billing
in the preliminary rounds with wins over Victor Sanchez (COL) and
Andres Loforte (ARG), who he dumped with a powerful harai-maki-komi.
If anyone was going to stop Hand it was Vicbart Geraldino (DOM).
Geraldino moved up to –100kg after the Sydney Olympics had
won the –90kg category at last year's Pan Am Championships
in Uruguay. He earned a spot in the final after throwing Steven
Edmonds (CAN) with a huge o-goshi that was one of the highlights
of the day. In the final he looked like he might topple Hand as
he came in with a big uchimata, but he just couldn't get the bigger
American up high enough to off balance him and execute the throw.
As he came out of the technique, Hand countered him and scored an
ippon to win the top spot on the podium. Edmonds fought well in
the bronze medal final, out classing Luis Gregori Lopez (VEN) in
a tough 5-minute match. The other bronze went to Loforte who skillfully
maneuvered Barry Jackman into osae-komi to secure the win.
Women +78kg
The women's heavyweight category had only four competitors and
was also contested in a round robin format. As fate would have it
the match that was held over until the evening's final round turned
out to be the deciding one once again. It featured Olia Berger (CAN)
who was fresh off a silver medal performance at the recent 2000
US Open and former Pan American champion, Carmen Chala (ECU). Despite
a handful of medals at past Pan American Championships from Chala,
it was Berger who appeared to be the one to beat in the final. She
had disposed of Nanoushka St. Pre (USA) and Geovanna Blanco (VEN)
with solid ippon victories earlier in the day, while Chala hadn't
managed a score anything higher than a yuko in her previous two
wins. But the experience of the Ecudorian Olympian came through
at the right time and she threw the Canadian with a swift o-uchi-gari
just seconds into the final to win the gold. Blanco picked up the
bronze by virtue of an earlier decision over Nanoushka
Men +100kg
The men's heavyweight category was without Sydney Olympic quarter-finalists,
Angel Sanchez (CUB) and Daniel. Hernandes (BRA) and so it looked
to be wide open as 2000 US Open medallists Joel Brutus (HAI) and
Peter Campbell (USA) vied for a spot on the rostrum along side veteran
Pan Am medallist, Orlando Baccino (ARG). When the dust had settled
however, it was Campbell of the United States who took home the
gold. Campbell, who had a bye in the first round, defeated Reinaldo
Vargas (VEN) in his opening match. In the final he beat 1997 Pan
American champion, Baccino with a vice grip-like kesa-gatame to
claim the gold. Vargas
went through the repechage and came away with a bronze medal despite
being behind by a yuko to Brutus (HAI). The Haitian had received
a third medical stoppage and was disqualified because a bloody nose
he had received earlier in the match would not stop bleeding. It
was a tough loss for Brutus who desperately wanted to fight on,
but rules are rules and he bowed out disappointed. Vasquez beat
Trevor McAlpine (CAN) to earn the other bronze medal. Vasquez threw
the big Canadian with a nice sode-tsuri-komi-goshi to collect his
second Pan American bronze medal.
Day
1, Day 2, Day 3
Women -44kg, -48kg,
-52kg, -57kg
Men -55kg, -60kg, -66kg, -73kg, OPEN
Kissimmee, USA – November 11, 2000 – Day two of the
2000 Pan American Judo Championships saw the lightweights compete,
including two extra lightweight categories that are unique among
the four continental championships: -44kg for women and –55kg
for men. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we also saw the men's
open weight contested. Women
–44kg -44kg
was a small category in number as well as in weight, having only
5 entries. Again, this resulted in a round robin format. Susej Oliveros
(VEN) came out on top with 31 out of a possible 40 points. She won
all her matches by ippon except the last one, which she won by forfeit.
On route to her gold medal she overcame Xochilt Rodriguez (NCA)
by ippon with a left uchimata, Katherine Ensler (USA) by ippon with
juji-gatame and Isabel Latulippe (CAN) who she also beat by ippon.
The
silver medal went to Ensler who won two fights with osae-komi-waza,
scoring yuko over Latulippe with kuzure-yoko-shiho-gatame and ippon
over Rodriguez with sangaku-kata-gatame. The bronze medal was given
to Latulippe who defeated Rodriguez with tate-shiho-gatame.
Men
–55kg
The –55kg category included only 7 fighters and Rashad
Chin (CAN) was the odd man out, receiving a bye through to the quarter-finals
where he met Sebastian Paz (ARG). Paz beat him with ko-soto-gari
for waza-ari to advance to the final against Juan Roman (PUR). In
the repechage Chin faced Israel Berrios (ESA) whom he threw twice
with drop seoinage, the second time scoring ippon to take a bronze
medal. In the other bronze medal match up, last year's silver medallist,
Hiram Cruz (USA) had his hands full with Juan Paula (DOM). Paula
threw him for three yukos with de-ashi-barai, o-uchi-gari and finally
uchi-mata to win a bronze. The
final featured Juan Roman (PUR) and Paz (ARG). After the referee
awarded a shido to Paz in the opening seconds of the match, both
men kicked it up a gear. But it was the Puerto Rican who struck
first with a low kata-guruma to win his country's only gold of these
championships to the delight of the many Puerto Ricans in attendance.
Women
–48kg
Eight women fought in the –48kg category, meaning half
of them would leave with a medal. Starting with the bronze medals,
we saw Junior World silver medallist Sayaka Matsumoto (USA) against
Kris Soto (VEN). Matsumoto threatened to score early in the match
with an uchimata, but failed to get enough pull on her opponent's
sleeve hand to finish the throw. The rest of the match was a battle
for grips and that resulted in a 2-1 decision in favour of the American.
In the other bronze medal match up Mariana Martins (BRA) made short
work of Nadia Bravo (ARG), armlocking her with juji-gatame at the
1:30 second mark. The
final saw Cynthia Tan (CAN) up against Adriana Losada (MEX). Tan
nearly scored early with a left seoinage and clearly dominated the
match despite not putting any points on the board. Interestingly,
the referee's decision was in favour of the Mexican, while both
corner judges raised the blue flag giving Tan two out of three votes
for the decision.
Men
–60kg
The –60kg category was the largest of the tournament with
12 competitors including last year's champion, Emiliano Sosa (ARG).
Sosa beat Hector Galloza (PUR) in his first match, but was stopped
in the quarter-finals by Brazil's Denilson Lourenco and was forced
to fight through the repechage for a bronze. In the repechage he
was set to face Juan Maria Santa (PAN), but the Panamanian withdrew,
setting up a bronze medal match between Sosa and Cristobal Aburto
(MEX). This was a frustrating affair as both fighters were penalised
to keikoku for non-combativity. However, thanks to a couple of early
scores from Sosa coming from seoinage (yuko) and te-guruma (koka),
he came out the winner. The second bronze featured a two time bronze
medallist, Juan Jacinto (DOM). Jacinto won bronze medals at the
1998 Pan Am Championships in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and
the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada. He added a third
bronze to his collection with an excellent seoi-otoshi to score
ippon in just over a minute. Meanwhile,
the silver medallist from the 1999 Pan American Games was looking
to do one better at these championships. Lourenco was the only male
athlete from Brazil at these championships and came here with only
one thing on his mind, a gold medal.. He was well on his way with
to achieving that aim with a second round ippon victory over Sosa,
the reining Pan American champion. He then faced Antonio Rivas (ARG)
and held him down with tate-shiho-gatame for another ippon win.
This took him to the final against a Daniel Simmard (CAN).
Simmard had
had a busy couple of weeks leading up to these championships, taking
medals at both the US Open (gold) and Rendezvous Canada (bronze).
After ippon victories over Felipe Novoa (CHI) and Aburto (MEX),
Simmard earned a spot in the final and hoped to add Pan Am gold
to his resume. The final between Lourenco and Simmard began with
the Canadian being penalised for a false attack. He quickly responded
with an o-uchi-gari attack, but was pushed down by Lourenco and
fell behind by another koka. The strong overhand grip of Lourenco
was a major factor and Simmard had trouble putting in any decent
attacks. Eventually he did attack again and was countered for a
waza-ari. This proved to be the decisive score, giving Lourenco
his gold.
Women
–52kg
Once again we saw a round robin format as this category had
only 5 combatants. Charlee Minkin, whose sister Davina was also
fighting today in the –57kg category, was the winner of this
group. Minkin was coming off recent bronze medal showings on the
North American Judo Tour and had a strong day finishing all of her
opponents off with ippon. Emi
Tasaka (CAN) had the next best record with 3 ippon victories. Tasaka
scored quick wins against Rubenia Castro (ESA), whom she choked
out in 40 seconds with kata-te-jime, and Elizabeth Melendez (PUR)
whom she threw in 1:23 seconds with a nice sode-tsurikomi-goshi.
Her third victory was against Jakelin Diaz (VEN). Melendez picked
up the bronze based her two wins.
Men
–66kg
-66kg was a strong field that boasted a number of former Pan
American medallists including Ludwig Ortiz (VEN), Miguel Moreno
(ESA) and Alex Ottiano (USA). Indeed each of these fighters lived
up to their billing and all collected medals, but it was Ortiz who
stood at the top of the podium. However, one man tried to make it
as difficult as possible for all of them; that man was a newcomer
on the Pan American scene by the name of Faycal Bousbiat. Bousbiat,
who is originally from Algeria, received his Canadian citizenship
a year and a half ago and now fights under the Canadian flag. He
had previously represented Algeria at the World Championships placing
as high as 5th place. Bousbiat made his presence known in his first
Pan American Championships with impressive victories over Ottiano
and Moreno on his way to a spot in the final against Ortiz. He beat
Ottiano with a de-ashi-barai that scored a yuko and threw Moreno
for ippon with kata-guruma. As a result, both Moreno and Ottiano
were relegated to the repechage where the fought back to each win
3 repechage fights and receive bronze medals. The
final between Bousbiat and Ortiz ended in some confusion as many
in attendance thought that the contest should have ended in a decision
due to a last second chui against Ortiz, but a look at the scoreboard
soon confirmed that this was not the case as Ortiz was ahead by
a koka. Bousbiat opened the scoring with a koka from tomoe-nage,
but was later penalised for staying in the red area for too long.
This evened the score and with 30 seconds remaining he was penalised
again for non-combativity. This gave Ortiz the lead. In the last
second, Ortiz was also penalised for non-combativity, but as this
was only worth a shido to Bousbiat it was not enough to even the
score. The result was a gold medal for Ludwig Ortiz or Argentina.
Women
–57kg
Six women were entered in the –57kg category including
3-time Canadian Olympian and former Pan American champion, Michelle
Buckingham. Buckingham, who last won the Pan Am title in 1997 at
–61kg, came out of retirement in 1999 after a year lay off
and was out to reclaim her title. This was made easier with a bye
in the first round, but in the second round she faced 1998 bronze
medallist, Claudia Quinteros (ARG). She threw the Argentinean with
morote-gari, ko-soto-gari and finally held her with tate-shiho-gatame
for ippon. This led to a spot in the final against 1999 bronze medallist,
Tania Ferreira (BRA). Ferreira had won her previous two bouts with
powerful throws -- uchimata and sode-tsurikomi-goshi. The final
therefore looked to be an exciting one. It began with the taller
Ferreira overpowering Buckingham with a strong overhand grip, but
the experienced Canadian was able to overcome this disadvantage
despite receiving a penalty for avoiding gripping and scored a nice
yuko with o-uchi-gari moments later. This proved decisive and other
than Ferreira being penalised for same side gripping, there were
no other scores in the 5-minute match. The win gave Canada their
5th gold of the championships to lead the gold medal count.
The bronze medals
were won by Davina Minkin (USA). Minkin's sister had earlier won
a bronze in the –52kg category. Minkin defeated Quinteros
with a very neat sumi-gaeshi rollover that she used to secure a
holddown with ushiro-kesa-gatame. Meanwhile, Vitcelis Boraure (VEN)
won the other bronze with a quick morote-seoinage victory over Roxana
Garcia (PUR).
Men –73kg
With 8 competitors in the –73kg category, each player
began with a spot in the quarter-finals, however it was Orlando
Fuentes (USA), Yamil Delgado (PUR), Francois Marceau (CAN) and Antonio
Parra (DOM) who made it to the semi-finals. In the Pool A semi Fuentes
beat Delgado with an ippon. Pool B saw Marceau throw Parra for ten
with harai-goshi. In
the repechage Lucas Landolfi (ARG) beat Jamal Grovesnor (BAR) and
Parra after losing to Orlando Fuentes in his first match to leave
Florida with a bronze medal. Richard Leon (VEN) followed a similar
path, losing to Marceau in his first fight and then winning two
straight in the repechage to take the other bronze medal.
Men's Open
Registration for the men's open took place at 10:30am on the
morning of competition and 7 fighters ranging in weight from –90kg
to over 100kg entered. Due to a lack of entries there was no women's
open. Joel
Brutus (HAI) was looking to vindicate a disqualification he received
yesterday due to a bloody nose in the +100kg category. However,
his gold medal hopes were dashed in the semi-finals when he lost
to Orlando Baccino (ARG) in a decision. Brutus dropped into the
repechage and beat Victor Sanchez (COL) to claim Haiti's only medal
of the championships. The other bronze went to Carlos Santiago (PUR)
after he defeated Reinaldo Vargas (VEN) with a koka. The
open final was everything that the open is supposed to be; in the
match between Gabriel Lama (CHI) and Orlando Baccino (ARG) we saw
a smaller –90kg player take on a true heavyweight in an entertaining
final. After losing a very close split decision in the –90kg
final the day before, Lama was eager to take home a gold this time
round. He began his quest for gold with a win over –100kg
player, Victor Sanchez. Lama made short work of the heavier Sanchez,
holding him for ippon in 50 seconds with kuzure-kami-shiho-gatame.
In his next fight he defeated Venezuela's +100kg bronze medallist,
Reinaldo Vargas with a te-guruma that scored him a yuko. This win
put him in the final against Baccino. Bacinno had already polished
off –90kg bronze medal winner, Jose Boissard (DOM) with a
big tani-otoshi and then got past Joel Brutus with a decision.
The final began
with both fighters sizing each other up, unfortunately it took a
little longer than it should have and they both received shido penalties
for non-combativity. Lama picked up the pace and put in a number
of good attacks over the next few minutes but just couldn't move
the bigger Argentinean enough to finish any of his techniques. However,
the superior fitness of Lama began to show through as he outworked
his opponent and Baccino received two more non-combativity penalties
putting him behind by a waza-ari and dangerously close to receiving
hansoku-make. With
just over half a minute left, Lama finally scored with a nice ko-uchi-gari,
but his waza-ari was already enough to win and he claimed his open
weight gold. Lama also received the Best Player Award for the championships
as a result of his two medals. He said afterwards that he was honoured
to win the award and that he is very happy to have his judo recognised
by this award. Lama will now return to South America to train in
Chile and Brazil in preparation for next year's European circuit
and the World Championships in Munich.
Check
out our Team & Kata photo gallery »
Day
1, Day 2, Day 3
Team and Kata Competition
Kissimmee, USA – November 12, 2000 – The final day of
the 2000 Pan American Judo Championships offered something a little
different from the usual continental championship. For the first
time ever, Kata was offered as an official Pan American championship
event. The Kata being performed were Nage no Kata, Katame no Kata
and Ju no Kata. In adition to the Kata, there was also a team competition.
Each team was made up of 5 players. Team competitions have long
been a feature on the European circuit and of course in Japan, but
this was the first time that such an event was held at the Pan American
Championships. The
team event was scheduled and included only 8 teams because of the
lower than usual number of athletes competing at this year's championships.
In the men's competition, 5 countries took part: Canada, Argentina,
Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the United States. The women had only
three teams: Canada, Venezuela and the US. Despite the small number
of teams, the event was still a good one and was exciting and enjoyable
for both the spectators and the participants. Canada,
who won the most medals in the previous two day's individual categories,
continued their strong showing taking both the men's and the women's
team titles. Each of the 5 players on each team received medals.
In adition to the medals, Sophie Roberge (-63kg bronze) accepted
the inaugural Pan American Team Trophy on behalf of the Canadian
women's team, while -90kg gold medal winner, Keith Morgan accepted
the award for the men. Morgan commented afterwards that "team
events are always fun, especially 5 man competitions." He added
that although team competitions are not currently part of their
National championships, he likes the idea and would like to see
more of them Canada and in major competitions. Canadian team member,
Steven Edmonds (-100kg bronze) also voiced his support for the team
event, saying that they "help build team camaraderie and spirit."
| TEAM
EVENT RESULTS |
| WOMEN
|
| 1.
Canada |
2.
Venezuela |
3.
USA |
| MEN |
| 1.
Canada |
2.
Argentina |
3.
Venezuela |
After the team
medal ceremony, the Pan American Judo Union gave out their annual
awards for the Male and Female athletes of the year. Winning the Male
award was 2000 Sydney Olympic –100kg silver medallist, Nicolas
Gill (CAN). The female award went to a Cuban fighter.
The Kata
competition began immediately after the medal ceremonies. There
were only 4 nations represented and 28 competitors, but for many
of them it was a unique opportunity to represent their country at
an international event. That being said, it's worth mentioning that
there were also some fighters participating as well, including Sydney
Olympian, Jekelin Diaz (-52kg VEN) and Daniel Insua (VEN). Insua
won the silver medal in the men's -81kg on the first day of competition
here.
The first Kata to be judged was Ju no Kata (Forms of Gentleness).
In the female division, there were two American pairs and one pair
from Canada. The team of Teri Schweitzer and Claudia Smith from
the USA received the highest scores from the panel of judges to
win the first ever Pan American gold in Kata competition. The male
division included only two pairs, both from the United States, which,
as the host nation, was allowed two extra entries in each division.
Both pairs were very good and less than 10 points separated them,
but the team of Mark Pasquinelly and Alan Panackia scored slightly
higher to take the first gold medal for the men. 87-year-old Keiko
Fukuda presented the medals. Fukuda-sensei is a Japanese hachidan
(8th degree) who now resides in San Francisco, USA. She
is the highest ranking female in the world and is regarded by many
as a living treasure.
The next
Kata was the groundwork Kata, Katame no Kata. 6 teams participated
in this event, three male and three female. Schweitzer and Smith
won their second gold medal in the female division, while the men's
title went to Andrez Dajnowski and Robert Mita of the USA.
Arguably,
the most popular Kata, Nage no Kata was the final event of the day.
The women's Nage no Kata featured four pairs, two representing the
United States of America, one from Canada and one from Venezuela.
The men's Nage no Kata also included four pairs, two from the USA,
and one each from Venezuela and Dominican Republic. The level of
Kata varied between the competitors and it was interesting to note
the subtle differences in interpretations of the Kata amongst the
various countries. The winners of the women's Nage no Kata were
Giselle Gravel and Monette Leblanc of Canada. Dajnowski and Mita
(USA) took the gold in the men's division.
Although
there were not many spectators left to witness the Kata portion
of these championships, it was a nice way to close the championships
for those involved. Jekelin Diaz (VEN) who won the bronze in the
women's Nage no Kata said afterwards "Kata is a very important
part of judo in Venezuela." She added that she feels that it
is a key part of judo tradition and should be practiced and included
in future championships. With Olympians such as Diaz interested
in Kata it bodes well for the future of Kata in modern international
judo.
The 2001 Pan American Judo Championships will be held in Coroba,
Argentina.
MC
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