V Panamerican Infantile Judo Championship
San Jose, Costa Rica
09th-14th November, 2005

OPENING CEREMONY

DATE:  November 11, 2005
PLACE:    San José, Costa Rica

At 7 o’clock, the panamerican infantile judo party began here in San Jose of Costa Rica. Athletes, trainers, referees, and team leaders gathered at the National Gym to begin theopening ceremony.

There was a also a great amount of public cheering the atheletes and watching the ceremony of an event whose stars are children between 13 and 14 years old.

The idea of having a judo competition for Pan-America’s children was born back in 2001, after a meeting of the Panamerican Judo Union, lead by Dominican Republic’s Jaime Casanova. The city of Maracaibo, cradle of this event, was selected to host the first championship, which has been hosted afterwards by Lima (Peru), La Paz (Bolivia), Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), and now, San Jose of Costa Rica.

This time, there are 244 athletes from 16 nations in this event, which year after year has been growing as a competition of development of infantile judo and the opportunity of improving Pan-America’s judo future.

This opening ceremony was presided by the president of the Costa Rican  Judo Federation, Guillermo Sanchez. Among other important personalities attending this event, there were the ambassadors of the USA and Japan in Costa Rica, the president of the Costa Rican Olimpic Committee, the National Sports Director of Costa Rica, the presidents of some national judo federations, such as Manuel Larrañaga (Mexico), Oscar Cano (Guatemala), Hoskin Caddle (Barbados), the vice-presidents of the PJU: Paulo Wanderley (Brazil), Ernst Laraque (Haiti) and Frank Silva (Nicaragua).

The entire executive committee of the PJU was also at this ceremony. They are: Jaime Casanova (president), Oscar Cassineri (vice-president), Edgar Claure (treasurer), Frank Fullerton (sports director), and Carlos Diaz (refereeing director).

After introducing everyone present at the ceremony, Guillermo Sanchez, president of the Costa Rican federation, thanked the PJU and his close collaborators for their cooperation in the organization of this event. He also thanked the Costa Rican community for working hard in the organization of these Panamerican Infantile Judo Championships.

The following are fragments of Mr. Casanova’s speech: “

"Dear members and friends of the Executive Committee of the Panamerican Judo Union, dear athletes, invited personalities, members of the Costa Rican Judo Federation, trainers, delegates, referees: today we are inaugurating this important event of the panamerican judo that gathers in this beautiful city the future of the our judo. I would like to ask all of you to stand up and honor with a minute of silence those who lost their lives in the Central American countries due the hurricanes that hit those nations…  Now I want you give an applause in memory to Heli Cabeiro who recently left us and who was one of the founders and proponents judo not only in Guatemala but also in other Central American countries….This is the party of panamerican judo; this is the future of our sport, for these children we should work and to give our best efforts. On behalf of the executive committee of the Panamerican  Judo Union and all of their members, I declare formally inaugurated these V Panamerican Infatile Judo Championships".

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