Home|Sports|Eastwood Judo Club wins medals at US OpenSports

Simba FrenchSend an emailAugust 2, 2023 15 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email

The Eastwood Judo Club experienced action at the US Open Judo Championships at the Great Fort Lauderdale Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, over the weekend.

There were some strong performances from the judokas and they came away from the tournament with a number of medals. Making the trip were Kemuel Sterling (bantam over 44 kg.), Keilesha Saunders (juvenile under 53 kg.), Tyrique Moss (juvenile under 64 kg.), Kevin Sterling (juvenile under 48 kg.), Kevinique Sterling (cadet under 70 kg.), Noah Sweeting (cadet under 73 kg.) and Xavion Johnson (cadet under 60 kg.).

Johnson, one of the top junior judokas in the country, secured the first medal which was a gold in his category. He went up against American Matthew Marczydlo. He won all of his matches via ippon. The Bahamian won his opening match against opponent Samuel Roberge-Poitras and then took care of his next opponent Gagik Amirkhanyan. In the quarterfinals, he won over his opponent Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste, setting up a semifinal match against Brazilian Augusto Kuniyoshi. Johnson won that match in 1:49.

Kemuel Sterling won a silver medal, going up against two competitors in the golden score events. He opened his competition with a win over Mark Phillips, winning via wazari. He lost his next fight via wazari to Khachik Levonyan.

Also winning a silver medal in the gold score event was Saunders. She competed in two rounds against Rhadi Ferguson – the only other competitor in that division – in a best-of-three format. Saunders put up a fight but lost both matches via wazari.

Kevinique Sterling was on mat six in the gold score in the cadet female heavy division. Her division had two other competitors and she came away with a silver medal with a 1-1 win/loss record. Her only victory came against Canadian Elizabeth Cossitt via ippon. Her loss came against the gold medal winner, Ester Robeiro.

Sweeting finished seventh in his division. He opened the competition with a tough loss against Jared Navarro in an 18-second ippon loss. He opened the repechage with a win via ippon against Puerto Rican Heakey Rivera and in his next match he took care of Tigran Galstian by way of wazari. He then lost against Canadian Jacob Arabov by way of ippon.

Moss got a bye in his division in the first round but lost in the quarterfinals against American Miles Broz. He lost his repechage against Armen Khayalya and placed ninth.

Kevin Sterling placed 17th overall in his division. He lost both of his fights.