Nick Kossor (blue) at the 2007 Pan Am Championships
Montreal, Canada - Justin Flores from the Glenville based, Jason Morris Judo Center (JMJC) took fifth place at the Pan Am Championships over
the weekend to qualify for the Pan Am Games in Rio, Brazil, July 12-19, 2007.
Flores opened the day losing a tough first round 66kg bout to
eventual silver medalist, Leandro Cuhna (Brazil) before stringing
together four wins to move into the bronze medal match against North
American rival, Sasha Mehmedovic (Canada).
Flores started the match strong, dominating the early action, but then the Canadian picked up his
level enough to make Flores get a penalty (passivity).
Flores couldn't regain the lead and had to settle for a fifth place finish.
JMJC's Nick Kossor made his debut at the Pan Ams and started out with a convincing
60kg win over Jose Arturo (Mexico), throwing him for ippon.
Kossor then held the lead by shido (stalling) over eventual silver medalist,
Lourenco Denilson (Brazil). With one minute remaining, Denilson countered Kossor's
osoto attack for ippon, sending Kossor into the losers pool.
Kossor had a chance to come back and reach the medal rounds, but lost a
tight battle to Juan Postigos (Peru) and was eliminated.
As a member of the U.S. Men's Team, Travis Stevens from the JMJC fought the 81kg Pan Am Champ,
Oscar Cardenas (Cuba).
Stevens fought the Cuban to a draw when the U.S. Men's team met Cuba in semi-finals.
Team competition differs from individual competition, there no overtime or referee's decision.
If the match ends in a tie, the result stands as a tie.
The U.S. Men's Team beat Team Mexico in the first round and Stevens beat Victor Palafox (Mexico).
Stevens will be joining Flores in Brazil for the Pan Am Games.
JMJC's Jason Morris was the Head coach for the American squad and led them to it's
best result in years, winning ten medals, including two gold.
2007 Pan Am Coaches Notes from Jason Morris
Team USA finished up strong and ended up with 10 total medals, including two gold which is our best performance since 2005 when we also
had 10 medals without the Cuban team being there.
There has been much improvement in this group technically and tactically which is a good sign in the young team.
There is even more good news here and that is there is a lot of room for even more improvement that the USA Judo staff from top to bottom will be continually working toward.&Nbsp;
Our veteran's are holding together very well as Val Gotay and Ryan Reser proved as they captured gold medals and Justin Flores and Adler Volmar put in workman-like performances to finish fifth both having injuries to deal with, setting a great example for the rookies.
Two of our youngest, Jeanette Rodriguez and Francesca Durand showed a lot spunk fighting hard and taking their tough draws and losses with class which is great to see in young athletes as they have a bright future ahead.
The athletes jobs now are to study their Pan Am opponents and take what they have learned from this weekend about themselves and try to improve on as many areas as possible to be ready for the Pan Am Games because having success once is easier than repeating it or even doing better.
I personally will be doing the same thing, going over what each athlete can get better at along with further figuring out the weaknesses of our competition.
On a personal note, I would like to give a thankful mention to USA Judo and all the people behind the scenes that are doing a great job at getting the people in the field what we need to have this kind of success.
|
