Results of the 12th Open Master Athlete Judo Championships Montreal, Canada

Arthur Canario (r) – Gold - M7 under 100
Frank Imundi (l) - Bronze - M7 under 90

Singapore - Last year the NYAC's youngest athlete Katelyn Bouyssou made history at the first ever Cadet World Championships in Budapest, Hungary when she was the only American female to compete for a medal. Katelyn made it all the way to the semi-finals before finishing 5th. A devastated Bouyssou was not happy with her performance and shortly after she realized that placing top 5 at the Cadet Worlds would earn her a spot on the first ever Youth Olympic Games team she set herself a new goal: to become the first ever Olympic Champion of any kind for American Judoka.

Katelyn wasn't fazed when it was announced that although she was still a member of the team - she would now have to give up more than 10 pounds and fight in the 115 weight category instead of her normal 105lb division. Steely grit and determination are what the 16 year old girl is made of. She competes against teenage boys and is still the top ranked Wrestler in the state of Rhode Island. She competed in her first Olympic Trials as a 13 year old and won her first Women's National title as a 14 year old, beating a woman twice her age 3 times en route to the gold. She was the only Judo player on the planet to earn the right to compete at the Cadet, Junior and Senior World Championships and she earned her spot on each one of those teams by soundly defeating her opponents. Naturally with talent and success come naysayers and doubters. Katelyn wasn't fazed by top ranked coaches and athletes criticizing her Judo and making excuses for why she was doing so well. She took it all in stride and left those people in the dust by continuing to do what she does best: Win and win and win.

Going into Singapore, Katelyn drew Cadet World Silver medalist Odette Giuffrida (ITA) for her first round. Katelyn played a smart match and forced the Italian into 2 stalling penalties before throwing her for wazari score. Her draw didn't get any easier as she found herself in the quarter final with another cadet world championships medalist Alexandra Pop of Romania. Katelyn steamrolled the Romanian throwing her for 2 beautiful wazari scores and earned a spot in the Semi final with another top ranked player in Christine Huck of Austria. Seeming to only get better as the day wore on, Katelyn didn't dive the Austrian a chance and score on her several times before finishing her off for ippon to move on to the gold medal match. Bouyssou kept the nerves at bay as she faced Anna Dmitrieva (RUS), a 2009 Cadet World bronze medalist in the 48kg division. “My strategy was to remain calm and do the judo that I know I’ve been doing for the past 10 years, give it my all and I knew I would be proud of myself, no matter what, in my heart,” Bouyssou said. She saved the best for last and after slamming the Russian with her patented sode (sleeve throw) she pinned her for the gold.

Tears of joy streamed down her father’s face and as Katelyn watched the American flag rise to the top of the arena and listened to the star spangled banner, she smiled and cried tears of her own as she knew she had just made history.

Miami, Florida - The NYAC Judo team
won 4 medals at the first ever International Judo Federation World Cup event held in the United States including 1 gold 1 silver and 2 bronze. The World Cup was the final event leading into the World Championships to be held in Tokyo, Japan in 2 weeks time. Medal winners at this event earn valuable points towards making the 2012 Olympic Team as the team is now picked by a world ranking list. Athletes in the top 22 for men and top 14 for women on the World Ranking list will be named to the Olympic team by the IJF. This drew the big guns from many countries and Olympic, World, European and Panamanian champions were all in attendance. Leading the way for the NYAC team was 20 year old Kayla Harrison. Harrison arrived at the event ranked 14th in the world and was told by her coaches a gold medal would earn her the 8th rank in the world and a seed at the World Championships. Kayla went 4-0 winning every match by ippon to win her 4th World Cup of the season. Kayla defeated Leidi Tejeda (DOM) and Marylise Levesque (CAN) to set up a semi-final show down with Amy Cotton of Canada. Cotton is one of the few players in the World to have 5 straight wins over Kayla before Harrison ended the streak and earned her first win over Amy en route to winning the San Paolo World Cup in Brazil in June. Kayla got her second win over the top Canadian yet again as she dominated her throwing her for a huge o- goshi for ippon just after the 2 minute mark of the match. Kayla found herself facing her third straight Canadian in for the gold in Catherine Roberge.

Kayla came out guns blazing and threw Roberge for Wazari with drop seoi nage before forcing the Canadian into 2 stalling penalties. With just under a minute remaining in the match Kayla threw the Canadian again and the crowd erupted with thunder sticks, bells and whistles. Kayla's NYAC teammates started chanting "U-S-A" and the stadium picked up on that and she was cheered all the way to the podium.

2010 Youth Olympic Champion Katelyn Bouyssou flew home early from Singapore to make it to the United States for this World Cup. A travel weary Bouyssou discovered she had a tough draw competing against Isaderena Sanchez of the Dominican before a quarter final show down with 10x World Cup medalist Isabel Latulippe of Canada. The youngster showed no fear as she defeated the Canadian by yuko to advance to the semi final with 2x World Cup medalist Lisa Kearny of Ireland. Kearny came out firing as she lifted Bouyssou up in the air on several occasions but the scrappy American girl wouldn't give up and she eventually wore down her opponent and score a yuko in the dying seconds of the match to make her way to her first ever World Cup gold medal match. In the final Katelyn was outmatched by a very game Paula Paretto of Argentina
who is an Olympic and World medalist.

Twenty-one year old Nick Delpopolo came out of his shell in 2010 making his first Sr World Team in April, winning back to back World cups in Venezuela and El Salvador in June and over taking Michael Eldred as the new 73kg #1. Delpopolo moved up over 70 spots on the World Ranking list from #99 to #22 and is making a statement that he is a man on the mission to make the 2012 Olympic team.

Nick started his day by soundly defeating Ronald Cruz (ESA) and Nikola Pejic (AUS) by ippon to move into the quarter final with Israeli #1 Roman Abramovich. Delpopolo had the chance to work out with Abramovich as he was in attendance at the 2010 World Team Training camp at Pedro's Judo Center in August. Delpopolo and Abramovich were locked in a battle when after 5 minutes both players were tied at a yuko each and moved into golden score. Neither player wanted to give an inch as they both knew a victory would mean an automatic chance at a medal. Finally after almost 8 long minutes of fighting Delpopolo edged out the Iranian by forcing him into a second stalling penalty moving him to the semi final with World #2 Dirk VanTichelt (BEL). VanTichelt proved too crafty for the young American to handle as he defeated Delpopolo 2 yuko's to none.

Delpopolo dropped to the bronze medal bout with 2001 World Bronze medalist
and current world # 14 Krysztof Wilkomirski (POL). This wasn't the first time the two had met as Wilkomirski defeated Delpopolo in a heart breaking overtime loss
at the 2009 NY Open and yet again in an Overtime match at the 2009 Kano Cup. Delpopolo had a meeting with his coach and mentor Jimmy Pedro before the bronze medal fight and Pedro laid it all on the line telling Nick "This match can make the difference between making the Olympic team and not". Delpopolo came out guns blazing and he lifted the Pollock up in the air several times drawing gasps from the fans. Wilkomirski could not answer any of Nick's attack's and he received 3 stalling penalties building a wazari lead for Nick. As time ran out Nick looked to his coach and nodded his head knowing that his mentor had yet again pushed him to the next level and helped him win bronze in front of the hometown crowd.

Rounding out the medal count for the NYAC men was Garry St Leger (90kg).
Garry came into the event unsure if he could even compete as a severe shoulder injury has sidelined him most of the year including at the years US Nationals in April.

Garry took it one match at a time and after defeating opponents from the
Netherlands Antilles and Dominican Republic he found himself in the quarterfinal with Brazilian Bruno Altoe. Garry came out strong and smashed Bruno for ippon with a fireman’s. Unfortunately for Garry he let up immediately after the ref called ippon and didn't see the side judges waiving the score to wazari. The Brazilian took advantage of the situation and pinned the unsuspecting St Leger to sneak away with the victory. St Leger re-grouped and defeated Felipe Olivera (BRA) by two wazari's to move into his first world cup medal round against Junior World Champion Quedjau Nhabali (UKR). After 2 minutes Gary delighted the crowd by smashing the Ukrainian and winning a hard earned world cup bronze medal.

August 27 – 28, Miami - World Cup Results:
Men
60 - Nick Kossor - 5th
73 - Nick Delpopolo - 3rd
81 - Travis Stevens - 7th
90 - Garry St Leger - 3rd
100 - Kyle Vashkulat - 7th
Heavy - Dan Mc Cormick - 5th
Women
48 - Katelyn Bouyssou - 2nd
57 - Hannah Martin - 7th
78 - Kayla Harrison - 1st
So, of 9 medals won by Americans, the NYAC took 4.


August 29, Miami - US Open results:
Men’s 60kg
Nick Kossor - 3rd;
Aaron Kunihiro - 5th
Men’s 73kg
Nick Delpopolo - 1st
Men’s 81kg
Harry St. Leger - 2nd
Men’s 90kg
Garry St. Leger - 2nd
Men’s 100kg
Shintaro Higashi - 2nd
Kyle Vashkulat - 3rd
Men’s +100kg
Daniel McCormick - 2nd
Women’s 48kg
Katelyn Bouyssou - 2nd
Women’s 57kg
Hana Carmichael - 1st
Women’s 78kg
Kayla Harrison - 1st

Tokyo Senior World Championships , September
USA/NYAC Team Members:
Women
48 kg - Katelyn Bouyssou
57 kg - Hana Charmichael
63 kg - Janine Nakao
78 kg - Kayla Harrison
Men
60kg - Nick Kossor & Aaron Kunihiro
73 - Nick Delpopolo
81- Travis Stevens
90 - Garry St Leger
100 - Kyle Vashkulat & Shintaro Higashi
Heavy - Dan McCormick