The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

FLORIN Daniel Lascau, the former world judo champion from Germany, likes what he saw from the competitors in the judo competition at the sixth Commonwealth Youth Games.

Lascau, who captured the title in 1991 in Barcelona, Spain, is in town working the one-day sport at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium as a member of the International Judo Federation.

"We've been here for one week and we ran the programme of the International Judo Federation and the IGF Academy Level One for instructors," he said. "We've been happy to work with the technical aspect of the sports."

Lascau, a native from Romania, said it was encouraging to see a total of 10 of the 17 nations who participated winning a medal, with England topping the charts with four gold and a bronze, while the Bahamas was ninth with two bronze.

"We are very proud, not only of the Bahamas in hosting the games, but also in winning medals," Lascau said. "We have a large number of coaches from the Bahamas, so to come out with two bronze medals is a very good start.

"We just hope that in the future, Bahamian judo will be top in the Caribbean and in the Pan American. So we are really proud that they performed as well as they did in judo here at home."

In making his debut in the Bahamas, Lascau said it has been all that he anticipated and more and he's even more thrilled by the level of enthusiasm that he has experienced from the Bahamian people towards the games.

The sport of judo, according to Lascau, is designed to educate people about the discipline of life and this is one way that they can to develop the society in general.

D'Arcy Rahming Sr, president of the Bahamas Judo Federation, said they certainly achieved all of their goals in hosting the sport during the games for the first time in the Bahamas.

"I think this was a very good coming out party for us and judo in the country," he said. "It was a very high level of competition and the people who come here, for instance, India compete on the Asian circuit and England compete on the European circuit.

"I think our guys competed very well against them. They held their own. None of them got wiped out. Many of them were in some very difficult matches, but we came out with two bronze medals. The difference between the gold and bronze was experience.

"We just have to get out there and do more tournaments internationally. So we are going to take our two bronze medallists to the World Cadets Championships in Chile in August. We are just delighted with their performances and the performances of the other competitors who competed."

Rahming thanked the Bahamian public for coming out and supporting the team, although they had two minor injuries to bronze medallist Karra Hanna and Taliano Ferguson, but he noted that they were both only minor setbacks and will not hamper or damper their performances in the future.