Team USA Receives Draws at World Championships

(Tokyo, Japan) – The draws for the Senior World Championships were conducted by the International Judo Federation on Wednesday afternoon at the Hilton Tokyo.  Complete draws can be found at www.ippon.org. 

In the largest World Championships in the history of the sport, this year’s event includes 848 players competing in 16 weight divisions as players vie for both a World title as well as Olympic qualification points. 

“First of all, it’s amazing to see the number of competitors here.  Five hundred-forty men and three hundred some women,” said Coach Jimmy Pedro (Methuen, Mass.)  “This is undoubtedly the biggest World Championships ever and in typical World Championships fashion we got some very very tough draws, but I think a couple of our athletes have a draw that they can come through and it’s manageable.” 

Seven-time World Cup medalist Kayla Harrison (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE) was one of five players from Team USA to enter the event ranked in the top 20 in the world, but was the only U.S. Team member to earn a seed making her one of the top eight players in the tournament.

“I really like Kayla’s draw.  She has Malzahn from Germany and then the winner of Slovenia and Great Britain to get to the quarters where she could fight Lebrun so I think she has a very manageable draw,” Pedro said. 

With 31 players on the team, the draws had mixed results for many.

“Some of the other ones matched up with Korea or Japan or some of the top guns right away so they’re harder than we’d hoped for early on because you like to get to the tournament and get at least a decent match or two under your belt so our athletes are going to have to step up to beat top players early,” Pedro said.  “Any way you look at it, though, you’re going to have to beat top players to try and come through and medal anyway, but to have that round be your first one isn’t a desirable outcome.  It doesn’t mean our kids can’t do it.  They’re just going to have to work even harder.”

Pedro went on to say that several other top players have draws that they could capitalize on.

“Travis [Stevens]... Well 81s is gonna be a hard division any way you slice it.  He’s got 80 guys in that division so it’s just huge, but he’s got a Georgian first round which I think is a pretty good match for him and the next couple rounds are manageable.  They’re good stylistically for him,” Pedro said.   “Both of are 73 guys have good draws.  I really like [Michael] Eldred’s draw, actually.  He’s got Turkmenistan first round and his next couple are pretty manageable too.  Nick Delpopolo has a decent draw at 73 too.  He faces [Nick] Tritton first.  That’s the #8 s need to get out of his quarter and he can give Tritton a good match.”  

Pedro met with the team after the draws and reminded the young team that it is possible to medal at your first Worlds as he did in 1991. 

“I don’t think my judo was better than any of yours at the time.  I just went out and fought everybody with everything I had.  I didn’t care who it was.  I was 20 and I’d never fought any of them before, but I just went after them all,” Pedro said.  “If you go out there and fight them as hard as you can for all five minutes, win or lose, I want all of you to walk off that mat feeling like you gave it everything you had.” 

Pedro continued: “Some of you are going to surprise yourselves and beat people you never thought you would and you have to remember that all the big names are just names and if you want to be a name you have to beat names.”

Competition begins on Thursday with the men’s 100kg and +100kg divisions and the women’s 78kg and +78kg divisions.

U.S. competitors for these divisions are as follows: 

Women’s 78kg
Kayla Harrison (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)
Suzie Rizek (Naperville, Ill. / Fox Valley Judo)

Women’s +78kg
Nina Cutro-Kelly (San Antonio, Texas / Universal Judo)
Toni Geiger (Dumont, N.J. / Tech Judo)

Men’s 100kg
Kyle Vashkulat (Glenville, N.Y. / NYAC / USA Judo National Training Site at the Jason Morris Judo Center)
Shintaro Higashi (Scarsdale, N.Y. / NYAC / Kokushi)

Men’s +100kg
Daniel McCormick (Wakefield, Mass. / NYAC / USA Judo National Team FORCE)
Conor Driscoll (San Jose, Calif. / USA Judo National Training Site at San Jose State University)

Tags: Conor Driscoll, Daniel McCormick, Jimmy Pedro, Kayla Harrison, Kyle Vashkulat, Michael Eldred, Nick Delpopolo, Shintaro Higashi, Suzie Rizek, Travis Stevens