BURNABY JUDO CLUB NEWS Website: www.burnabyjudoclub.ca December 3, 2007 Hatashita International Nov 17 18, 2007 On November 16th, I departed for Toronto with seven athletes from the Burnaby Judo Club and two from Steveston to the Hatashita Intonational Judo Tournament. With over eight hundred competitors and cash prizes, this is the largest tournament in Canada. It was also the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Junior European Tour, which is a crucial stepping stone for next year s Junior World Championships. 1
It was very important for me to accompany these students. As head coach of the Burnaby Judo Club I had designed the summer and fall training plan to have them peak for this event, and I needed to see how my plans would play out. The weight training and rope climbing in the summer and the circuit training and chin ups in the fall were all designed to give our athletes the edge at this tournament. Those who followed the program most rigorously had the best performances at this event. The Burnaby athletes were Jessica Mah, Miguel DeSousa, Gabreilla DeSousa, Darko Heriban, Cameron Butler, Ashley Bartlett and Scott McGrandle; Andrew Taylor met us there. Most of these students took the opportunity to gain valuable experience at this event by entering two divisions; some of them had many matches as they fought their own divisions on Saturday and then competed in the Senior event on Sunday. Jessica competed both days in the Junior and Senior -48 kg division. On Saturday she defeated her first two opponents but was stopped in the semi final by the eventual gold medalist and sent into the repercharge. There she faced Nicole Tsukishima from Alberta whom she had defeated in the first round of the day. This time Jessica was thrown for ippon and lost the bronze medal. On Sunday she lost her first two matches and was eliminated. Miguel DeSousa also did not perform as well as he could have. He had a bye in the first round and then defeated an athlete from Quebec before losing to an American. He then entered the repercharge where he was thrown for ippon by the eventual bronze medalist. Miguel seemed to have lost this match before it even started. As he was on deck he kept focusing on how big the guy was and who he had defeated earlier in the day. Miguel did very well for the first two minutes of the match and needs to think more positively. Darko Heriban, on the other hand is absolutely fearless, regardless of the size or reputation of his opponent. Competing in the -66 kg Juvenile division, Darko decisively destroyed his first two opponents with his belt grabbing style and turned quite a few heads in the process. As the competition got tougher, people began to study Darko and his third opponent was familiar with Darko s Russian style and countered him several times. But this did not stop Darko. Although he was behind by every score on the board he kept attacking and pinned his opponent with only twenty seconds left in the match. It was a most impressive display of sheer determination and an absolute refusal to surrender. He was unfortunately defeated by the gold medalist in the semi final and lost his bronze medal match to a more experienced player. Gabriella DeSousa also fought through adversity and inspired the rest of the team with her performance in the -52 kg Juvenile division. Gabby had difficulty getting started and did not quite manage to win her first match. She was very disappointed and had to wait hours for the repercharge. She was able to refocus and start over, winning two matches in the repercharge. She unfortunately lost the in the bronze medal round, but she showed real character with her comeback attempt. 2
The biggest comeback attempt of the weekend had to belong to Cameron. He started the day with an injured ankle, but managed to destroy his fist two opponents before I noticed him limping. He then fought the number one ranked Canadian, Joel Benoit and was not able to get past him. When he asked me what I thought about him withdrawing I told him that it was up to him; I had too many coaches press me to fight hurt and I still feel it today. No one disputes Cameron s work ethic or will to win so I knew if he was talking about pulling out he was injured. After relaxing and looking back on the day with myself and his teammates in the hot tub this evening, Cameron asked if he could try again tomorrow in the Senior division. He assured me he would change his strategy and try to take his opponents to the ground immediately and thereby do no further damage to his ankle. I agreed and he was successful in his first two rounds, dispatching his adversaries early in the match with his power hold downs and submission techniques. He then ran into one of the top ranked Canadian Seniors, Michael Popeil who is older and considerably more experienced on the mat and could not only match Cam s controlled savagery there but showed Cam a new level of power and defeated him. Cam then wisely chose to withdraw, having reinjured his ankle in the match. It was disappointing, but he gained valuable experience and showed me that when he comes to fight that s what he does. Andrew Taylor also gained valuable experience in Senior competition in -90 kg division. Andrew won two and lost two in a respectable performance at this level. He has strong fundamentals and the ability to execute dynamic throws. He also demonstrated some excellent mat work, arm locking one of his adversaries. However, Andrew must learn to slow the pace of the fight when he is ahead and let his opponent make the high risk moves in order to catch up. This is when he will really be able to smash them. Instead, he continues to open up with high risk attacks and gets countered. I am confident that with more experience he will learn to fight more tactically and can then become a medalist in this division at this level. Ashley, on the other hand, is already a consistent medalist in her fist year as an IJF Junior in the - 63 category. She beat a very technically and tactically sound opponent in her first match which made me happy as slow starts have been an issue in the past. She then easily dispatched a weaker opponent before losing to the eventual silver medalist. Ashley then roared through three girls in the repercharge, including the girl who won her Juvenile division last year to claim the bronze medal. Ashley will qualify for Junior worlds if we can get her a bit stronger. She is technically superior but her opponents are shorter a stockier, making them physically stronger. But the most physical specimen of the tournament was also its technical and tactical star, Scott McGrandle. Scott has focused on changing his techniques this fall and it really paid off. He is also very fit and confident enough to use this advantage early in the match to push his opponents so that he can dispatch them with style near the end of the match when they can simply no longer keep up to the pace he has set. On the first day, Scott tore through four rounds on the winner s side of the -73 kg IJF Junior division to meet the number one ranked American, Nick Delpopolo who is a disciple of the Jason Morris Judo Center. Jason Morris was a world and Olympic medalist, and he teaches his students excellent stand up judo, but sportsmanship does not seem to be in their program. In an extremely 3
gritty and hard fought match, Scott pushed his opponent standing and ground him on the mat; at the end of the five minutes the score was tied, driving them into sudden death overtime. Again Scott worked earnestly for five minutes and at the end of that time was rewarded the unanimous decision by all three judges. I have rarely scene such a display of poor sportsmanship by another player and coach; Delpopolo refused to mount the podium for the silver medal. Scott came down with his gold medal to be met by JP Cantin, the Junior National coach who informed him of his selection to for the 2008 European Tour to Bremen, Germany next spring. The player who defeated Scott on a dubious score last summer in the final of the Canadian Championships had not even placed. The next day Scott looked even more impressive as he dispatched his first five opponents to meet Delpopolo again in the the final. This time Scott lost on a questionable call with much catcalling and badgering of the referees by his opponent s coaches. But Scott showed what a true sportsman is by holding his head high and acting as gracefully in defeat as he had the previous day in victory. He has tasted triumph and disaster and learned to treat these two impostors just the same. 4
Respectfully submitted by Curtis Pentland, Head Coach Burnaby Judo Club Photos submitted by Jessica Mah Ashley Bartlett Sean Hall Lisa Nakajima 5