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UNIÓN PANAMERICANA DE JUDO |
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UNIÃO PANAMERICANA DE JUDÔ |
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PANAMERICAN JUDO UNION |
UNION PANAMERICAINE DE JUDO |
Judo Belize takes bronze in Honduras
24 September 2008
The
Judo Association of Belize takes pleasure in announcing to Belizean martial
arts fans and the public that on Monday September 22, 2008, our single judo
competitor, Tzu Hsiang Lin, a.k.a. Michael Lin, 16 years old,
of Belize Kodokan Judo Club, white belt, won the bronze medal
fighting in the 90 kgs Male division of the Judo Tournament, for athletes 17
years of age and under in the CODICADER Games being held in Tegucigalpa,
Honduras and El Salvador. Bryan Arreaga, brown belt, of Guatemala
took the gold medal and Mauricio Bonilla, green belt, of El
Salvador the silver medal in the hardest fought match of this 90 kgs
division.
The judo competition which lasted 2 days from September 21 to September 22 included teams of 12 or more competitors each, male and female, from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica, along with Belize’s ‘army of one’ to borrow from the U.S. Army’s recruiting ad. But to borrow from the British army’s recruiting ad, Belize judo aspires to ‘be the best’, and in that context, the President JAB Franz Menzies Jr., who substituted for Sensei Wellington Chee and acted as Coach for Belize’s lone entrant, as well as Official/Delegate, along with Mrs. Catherine Lin assisting, had made the decision early on that only athletes who demonstrated the discipline and commitment to train would represent Belize in judo and no extras to make up numbers would travel, and it would appear that idea was vindicated in the result.
The Judo Association of Belize competed for the first ever in September 2007, however, at the 25th World Judo Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where Belize was represented in the 73 kgs male adult division, by Javier Molina, our original ‘army of one’ in that historic competitive start for Belizean judo.
Judo Belize was welcomed by our Central American Judo compatriots to compete for the first time ever in the region, and they expressed the wish to see this youth athlete debut as the start of continuous Belizean participation in future judo competition in Central America as well as the wider Panamerican Judo Union area. The 3 person JAB delegation travelled to Tegucigalpa, Honduras on September 20, 2008 and returned to Belize on September 23.
