Elite athletes from the Jason Morris Judo Center (JMJC) in Glenville, NY competed last weekend n the Dusseldorf Grand Slam which is one of the toughest events on the IJF Tour. Kell Berliner (25), Hannah Martin (31), Nicole Stout (22) & Alex Turner (26) all had very difficult draws but competed well. Berliner (81kg) lost to 2018 world champion, Saeid Mollaei (Mongolia) in the first round and was eliminated. Martin (63kg) lost by only one score to 2x World Silver Medalist and eventual Dusseldorf Grand Prix Champ, Miku Tashiro (Japan) in her first bout. Turner won his first 73kg match armlocking Julian Sancho (Costa Rica) before losing to 2x World Silver Medalist & eventual bronze medalist, Rustem Orujov (Azerbaijan) which eliminated Turner. Stout lost her first 78kg match to a very strong Jovana Pekovic (Montenegro) eliminating Stout. Kell and Nicole as well as Ari Berliner (21) stayed in Germany for the training camp this week before heading to Warsaw, Poland for the Polish Open this coming weekend. You can follow all the International Judo action at IJF.org – International Judo Federation, http://www.judobase.org and TTA – the Judo Information System
JMJC Tidbit – JMJC’s head coach, Jason Morris won a silver medal at the German Open which is now called the Dusseldorf Grand prix in 1988 in 78kg.
REMINDER – The JMJC Open will be Saturday, March 7 staring at 12noon.
