Judo team wipes out field, claims 42nd national title

By: Rainier Ramirez

Posted: 4/4/07

The San Jose State University judo team threw down the competition at the Judo Association Collegiate National Championships in Miami and captured their 42nd team title in 46 years.

Out of 13 divisions, SJSU took home six gold medals, and a total of 11 overall.

"They did as expected," said Shozo Fukuda, assistant coach of the judo team. "The women dominated the categories they participated in."

He added that the men also did well, but had a difficult tournament draw to fight against.

"I think were we all expected to do pretty well," said Atsushi Yoshinaga, the gold medal winner in the men's 90 kg (198 lbs) weight class.

"My hardest match was in the finals against my teammate," Yoshinaga said. "The matches up to that were pretty easy - I had a pretty easy draw."

Two days after the team won the Collegiate Nationals, the team returned to its regular practice schedule. Yoshinaga said that the team would take a break from their training, but a bigger and more difficult tournament coming up in April.

Atsushi Yoshinaga's sister, Tomoyo, also participated in the collegiate tournament and earned a gold medal in the women's 70 kg (154 lbs) division, successfully defending her title from last year.

"I got first, and I beat and opponent that I wasn't able to beat before," Tomoyo said. "It was a very progressive weekend."

She said that even though her opponent was younger, she was experienced and put up a very good fight in the finals.

"I only had two matches before - it was a quick ippon (one point win) with my favorite throw. In my second match, we went the whole way ... it was exciting with everyone cheering."

For Marti Malloy it was her third time competing at Collegiate Nationals, but had recently moved up a weight division. After winning the title last year in the women's 57kg (126 lbs) division, she was able to repeat her winning performance in the 63kg (139 lbs) division.

"I normally fight lighter girls," Malloy said. "I had to play it safe because I didn't know their technique, their style or anything like that."

Malloy had to fight against teammate Corinne Grier in the final round.

"When you fight someone you fight every day in practice, you know everything each other does, so it's really hard," Malloy said.

Shozo Fukuda, assistant coach, said that Collegiate Nationals were just a warm up for Senior Nationals, which will be a much bigger and difficult tournament.

According to the USA Judo Nationals Web site, Senior Nationals will be held on April 20 and 21 in Miami. It will serve as the selection event for the Pan American Games in July and the World Championships in September, both will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Medals won

Women's 48kg (106 lbs)

1. Tabitha Lum

Women's 63kg (139 lbs)

1. Marti Malloy

2. Corinne Geier

Women's 70kg (154 lbs)

1. Tomoyo Yoshinaga

Women's 78kg (172 lbs)

1. Allison Clifford

Men's 60kg (132 lbs)

1. Isaac Golubchin

Men's 66kg (146 lbs)

3. Jeff Fong

Men's 73kg (161 lbs)

2. Takeshi Young

Men's 81kg (179 lbs)

3. Andrew Hung

Men's 90kg (198 lbs)

1. Atsushi Yoshinaga

2. Davor Vasiljevic

*Weight divisions in judo are measured in kg.

*Lbs rounded to nearest number.