PRESS RELEASE

Chandler & Torra Take Fifth, Burns Seventh
Athens, Greece — Jason Morris Judo Club members, Liz Burns, Carrie Chandler and Nate Torra did exteremly well at the Athens Open which is the first leg of their European tour. Nate Torra took fifth place at 66kg going 3-2 on the day. Torra opened with victory against V. Korozidis (Greece) throwing hm for yuko then pinned him near the end of the bout. Torra then lost to G. Nazarov (Greece) but came back to smash K. Grigoriadis (Greece) and P. Viladis (Greece) to move into the bronze medal match againsy I. Deaconu (Romania). The Romanian proved to be to much for Torra leaving him with a solid fifth place finish. Carrie Chandler took fifth place at 63kg. She started strong throwing V. Pesta (Greece) in the first 30 seconds for ippon setting up a semifinal matchup with J. Ylinen (Finland). Chandler lost a tight match to the eventual silver medalist yuko-koka. Chandler then beat L. Reve (France) to set up a bronze medal final against 2000 Olympic bronze medalist, Maria Pekli (Australia). Pekli was the only one to defeat Chandler on the North American tour winning the US Open and Rendez Vous Canada. Chandler looked to avenge those losses and was comfortably ahead by 2 kokas when she was thrown for ippon at the 1:30 mark. Liz Burns finished in seventh with a 2-2 mark. Burns beat K. Selinopoupou (Greece) first then lost in overtime to R. Rau (Germany) in the quarters. Burns came back to crush A. Sotiropoulou (Greece) before losing in the bronze medal match to A. Mitilinou (Greece). "This is a fantastic start of the tour for these athletes" said coach, Jason Morris. They will now stay attend a training camp this week before moving on to Moscow, Russia for the Moscow Open.