March 8, 2009

 

Silver lining for Stevens and Delpopolo

 

New York, NY  Pedro's Judo Center in Wakefield sent 7 athletes to the 26th annual New York Open international Judo tournament held at the prestigious New York Athletic Club in down town Manhattan.  The NY Open is the toughest tournament in North America as it offers a cash prize of 1000.00 to each of the gold medal winners in the 7 weight divisions.  This draws high level competitors from Europe and Asia and this year was no different with Olympic champions and world medalists in attendance.

 

Nick Delpopolo (20) led the way for Pedro's athletes as he went 4-1 in a stacked 73kg field to win silver.  This is Nick's highest placing at an international event.  Delpopolo had all of the NY crowd on their feet as he turned heads all day by making it to the gold medal match.  The accomplishment was bittersweet however as Delpopolo held a convincing lead in the final against World Bronze medalist Krzysztof Wilkomirski (POL) but made a rookie mistake in the last 7 seconds by taking a stalling penalty which sent the match into sudden death overtime.  The young Delpopolo thought he had a penalty to spare and was confused as the match moved into the overtime period.  This flustered Delpopolo who came in for an unnecessary attack with 30 seconds left in the match which left his neck exposed and he was promptly submitted with a choke.

 

The intensity heated up as immediately following Nick's gold medal match teammate Travis Stevens squared off in the final with Olympic Champion Ole Bischof (GER).  Stevens had previously lost to Bischof in the Beijing Olympic games by a yuko (quarter point) in regulation time.  Stevens was thrilling the crowd as he dominated Bischof and looked as if he was poised to get his first win over an Olympic Champion.  The match was packed full of exciting exchanges with both players lifting each other high in the air.  As the time dwindled down neither player was able to produce a score sending the match into another nail biting over time period.  Stevens got a little impatient and tried to force the action by attacking with a low firemans when he was pushed over onto his side by the German for a yuko (quarter point) leaving him with the silver medal.

 

Delpopolo and Stevens were the only two Americans to make it to the final and 2 of only 3 Americans to medal.  Aaron Kunihiro (19) and Bobby Lee were the only other Team Force members to win matches both going 1-2 in their respective divisions.

 

New York Open 2009 Results

 

60 KG
1st.   PESSOA, Sergio - CAN
2nd.  TRINDER, Graham - GBR
3rd.  SHINJIRO, Sasaki - JPN
3rd.   MILOUS, Sofiane - FRA
5th.  WILL, Frazier - CAN
5th.  HAMASAKI, Taiki - JPN

66 KG
1st.  GANBAT, Boldbaatar - MGL
2nd.  MEHMEDOVIC, Sasha - CAN
3rd.  MANTOBETOV, Alisher - KGZ
3rd.  BENOIT, Joel - CAN
5th.  AIT TALEB, Rachid - FRA
5th.  POPIEL, Michael - CAN

73 KG
1st.  WILKOMIRSKI, Krzysztof - POL
2nd.  DELPOPOLO, Nick - USA
3rd.  ADAMIEC, Tomasz - POL
3rd.  MESSEGUER, Laurent - FRA
5th.  AUBIN-MERCIER, Olivier - CAN
5th.  BOULEMIA, Mustapha - FRA

 81 KG
1st.  BISCHOF, Ole - GER
2nd. STEVENS, Travis - USA
3rd. FERJAN, Klemen - SLO
3rd. VALOIS-FORTIER, Antoine - CAN
5th. GILMORE, James - GBR
5th. KACHUR, Kalem - CAN

90 KG
1st.  GONTYUK, Roman - UKR
2nd. KATABUCHI, Kazuma - JPN
3rd.  PURSSEY, Jonathon - GBR
3rd.  St. LEGER, Garry - USA
5th.  MEEUWSEN, Jeffrey - NED
5th.  TWORZYDLO, Wiktor - POL

100 KG
1st.  BACHMANN, Bjorn - GER
2nd. AOUDIATE, Sidi – FRA

3rd.  TOKUZO, Takahashi – JPN

3rd.  MEHEDDI, Khaldoum - FRA

5th.   POLYANSKYY, Vitaliy - UKR

5th .  MEEUWSEN, Danny - NED

 

100 + KG

1st.  SUTO, Koji - JPN

2nd.  BEL HADJ FAWZI, Mohamed - FRA

3rd.  MEDEUF, Cedric – FRA

3rd.  LECHER, Oliver - GER

5th.  CARTY, Sydney - NED

5th.  McCORMICK, Daniel – USA

 

Most Valuable Player   BACHMANN, Bjorn  Germany