UNIÓN PANAMERICANA DE JUDO		UNIÃO PANAMERICANA DE JUDÔ
PANAMERICAN JUDO UNION		UNION PANAMERICAINE DE JUDO

City of Guatemala, February 6th, (10:00 p.m) PJU Press Commission . The first Technical Judo Seminar, organized by the Central American Judo Confederation and the National Federation of Guatemala, has resulted a complete success.

The Hotel Conquistador Ramada, placed in Via 5, number 4-68 of zone 4in this beautiful city of Guatemala, has been the scenery and lodging center for the participants of the “I Technical Judo Seminar” of the growing Central American Judo Confederation, which year after year makes great efforts to improve the technical ad educational level of their coaches, referees and competition officials.

Lic. Frank Fullerton (USA), PJU Sports Director, has been the fundamental support  in these seminars, where he has conducted talks with the participants about the most relevant aspects in the organization of judo tournaments. For two days (5^th & 6th) Lic. Fullerton talked among other aspects about different topics such as : The Organization of Judo Tournaments, Forms Systems, Timekeepers, Competition Systems, Use of Shiai System 2000 (Official Program for Competitions of the PJU), among other topics.

The Referee Seminar was leaded by Prof Heli Cabeiro (Guatemala) and directed to the initiation of new referees

Meanwhile, the Cuban instructors, who work for the National Judo Federation of Guatemala, explained different methods and training systems, the physical, technical and competitive preparation of the judo athletes, directed to the participating coaches from the Central American Area (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras & Nicaragua).

 The attendance of the Presidents of all National Federations from Central America has been equally important, between them were Eng. Guillermo Sanchez Cantillano (Costa Rica), Lic. Luis Alfonso Chevez (El Salvador), Sr. Oscar Cano (Guatemala), Doña Marta Alonso (Honduras) and Lic. Frank Silva (Nicaragua), which without any doubts shows the real significances that National Federations are giving to this event, which is the first of his type organized in this sub geographical area of the American Continent.

The Executive Committee members of the Pan American Judo Union, who shall have their first official meeting of the year 2003 on 7^th February at 10 am., visited each of the seminars developed in the city of Guatemala, where they showed their satisfaction for the number of participants to this seminar

From this pages, The PJU Executive Committee congratulates the Executive Committee of Central American Judo Conference, presided by Mrs. Marta Alonso and the National Judo Federation from Guatemala, presided by Prof. Oscar Cano, for this initiative, which will definitely benefit the technical development of each of the cognitve areas of our sport. But the congratulations go especially to all the participants who, once they get home, will be multipliers of such important knowledge acquired.

The seminars counted with a great number of participant sand with a great technical display by the use of computerized systems, digital videos, digital projectors, and so on. The gymnasium judo building “Heli Cabeiro” was the site for the Education and Coaching Seminar, the site for Guatemala Sports Confederation, and for the Referee Seminar, while Hotel "Conquistador Ramada" was the place where the Organization Seminars were conducted. Both buildings were visited by the members of the Executive Committee of the PJU.