Judokas earn bronze medals at Caribbean Championships

Trotman competed in the Under-81 kgs weight category and easily defeated his opponent from Aruba in seven seconds in the final round of the repechage.

He earlier lost to a Bahamas opponent in a somewhat controversial call, after he was leading handsomely for most of the five-minute fight.

Keron who fought in the 60 kgs category, got his bronze medal after losing to Dominican Republic in the first round.

He also won in the final round of the repechage against the competitor from Aruba.

The Caribbean Judo Championships was the first for the newly reconstituted Caribbean Judo Confederation (CJC) and involved 12 countries, among which were Puerto Rico, Haiti, Venezuela, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

On the final medal count, Trindad tied for sixth position with Venezuela.

The Trinidad Judo team comprised Manager/Coach Anthony Hart and three judokas — Caurdius Trotman, Keron Bourne and Clifford Parris.

Parris competed in the 66 kgs weight category and almost copped a bronze medal also. He came in fifth place facing some very strong opponents.

There were also two tournaments held on Friday, June 30 (Copa Internacional FedoJudo) and Saturday (Central American and Caribbean Championships).

These two competitions involved twenty (20) countries including USA, Canada, Spain and Argentina.

While TT were extremely competitive, they were just outside the medals, as both Trotman and Bourne came fifth out of 20 and 16 competitors respectively in the Copa FedoJudo.

Trotman did not participate in the Central American and Caribbean Championships as a result of injury to his shoulder.

Clifford Parris came seventh and ninth in both tournaments out of 21 competitors.

The tournaments served as preparation for TT’s participation in the CAC Games to be held in Columbia later this month.