Sunday 22 June 2014

Contintal Open Panama, South America

It was a long journey but well worth the experience. I didn't expect the Juniors to be as tough as it actually was although the cadet event was a bit of a small entry

CADETS

Daniel Saborio (Costa Rica) First Fight
Ippon Win

Adrian Gandia (Peurto Rico) Second Fight
Adrian is one of the best around and we had a great fight. sadly I lost by a yuko getting countered with a sloppy attack.

Ronald Gonzalez (Panama) Third Fight
This was a tough fight but a good win by Ippon.

Juan Pablo Chapparo (Columbia)
Good work on the ground and an Ippon win secures the Silver Medal in the Cadet Section

JUNIORS

This was a really tough section. Not a massive group but full of talent.

Juan Tello (Columbia) First Fight
Juan had beat one of the favorites in his first fights David Prestes. Despite only being a Junior David competed in last Years Senior World Championships and had beat Gregg Varey earlier that year. Juan dominated his fight so I was not expecting much. Quite the opposite, I dominated the fight and although I couldnt score easily won the contest on shidos.

Eliezer Carreno (Dominican Republic) Second Fight
Eliezer was only short but a man mountain. I attacked constantly but just couldn't budge him losing the fight by a Yuko. Eliezer went on to win the event. During the fight I damaged my elbow badly which kept me off the mat for six weeks.

Daniel Saborio (Costa Rico)
It was a risk fighting for the Bronze with one arm but I had beat Daniel easily in the cadets so was confident. Thankfully I arm-locked Daniel quite quickly to win the Bronze Medal.

The elbow injury meant I could't take part in the training camp which one of the main reasons we came here. Three days in the sun by the pool made up for that.