Two Americans, Maria Celia Laborde (-48kg) and Jack Yonezuka (-73kg) made it to the Top 20 of the IJF's World Ranking List.
Laborde actually made it to the Top 10 with her #9 ranking. Her best performance this year was a gold medal at the Guadalajar Grand Prix (see video above). She got silvers in the
Pan American Oceania Championships in Santiago and the Oceania Open in Gold Coast. She also got a bronze at the Upper Austria Grand Prix.
Jack Yonezuka was the best male senior from the USA, with his #14 ranking. He won a gold medal at the Pan American Oceania Championships in Santiago and a bronze at the European Open in Ljubljana. But his best performance of the year was probably his defeat of Fabio Basile (ITA) who was hoping to stage a stunning comeback at the Tokyo Grand Slam. (See video above). Instead, he lost to Yonezuka by a yuko from a very low ouchi-gari. Yonenzuke ended up a creditable 7th place in what has to be one of the hardest tournaments in the world.
