Judo: Tough days ahead for those on mat

By DAVID LEGGATT

For Rochelle Stormont, marching in the opening ceremony rammed home to her what the next few days are all about.

"It gave you the thought that we are actually here," said the 20-year-old Pukekohe student, one of two New Zealand judokas in action at the G-Mex Centre tonight for the opening of the judo competition.

She and Auckland student Andrew Ross will line up in the women's under-48kg and men's under-66kg divisions respectively.

Stormont has competed at international events previously, but this is her first experience of a multisport jamboree and therefore has a special atmosphere.

When she steps on to the mat, purely on the basis of numbers, Stormont must be a reasonable chance of making an impact in her first Games. There are just six other players in her event, but much will depend on this morning's draw.

In a sport where, to the uninitiated, working out how points are scored is akin to understanding the finer nuances of Swahili, Stormont has twice fought, and lost to, England's Clare Lynch, one of the favourites.

That may suggest an unfavourable prospect, but even so, "the first time she beat me by a lot, but the second time not by much."

"That's good for my confidence. I know I improved a lot against her and this time anything can happen."

The New Zealand team spent two weeks in Japan at two universities with highly-regarded judo programmes, followed by a week at the Edinburgh club, which is expected to provide up to four Scottish gold medallists here.

"I'd like to think that everything has gone reasonably close to how we'd planned it," said section manager and 1990 Games gold medallist Brent Cooper.

New Zealand have six players here - Stormont, Nellie Stallworthy, of Auckland, Gisborne's Melissa Jones, Ross, Gareth Knight, of Auckland, and London-based Tim Slyfield.

The quality of the Games judo programme is good, but significantly below Olympic or world championship level.

"You do get a sprinkling of [Olympic or world] medallists here, the odd one or two in each division who do perform at world level," Cooper said.

That is the criterion to be applied when considering New Zealand's medal chances.

He believes Stallworthy in the under-70kg, and to an extent Knight in the under-90kg classes, have the most difficult divisions.

Jones has an Olympic bronze medallist in the under-57kg class; Slyfield's division includes former world champion Graeme Randall, of Scotland.

For all that, Cooper reckons Slyfield has the quality to succeed.

He says two medals will be a good return, three will have him doing cartwheels outside Old Trafford.

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