by Dave Delgado

The Guam Judo team has been preparing for the East Asian Games in China for awhile now and has been putting in 4-6 hours of training a day in hopes of medaling. The judo team will be competing in Korea before the East Asian Games and then fly to China for the competition and then board the plane right after to compete in Taipei.

Rick Blas, Jr. said, "It's pretty intense, for the last month we have been working it hard. Going over to Korea before the match in the East Asian Games in Hong Kong will be good but rough. It will get us prepped up to fight in East Asia in a bigger crowd base and we also have a tournament after in Taipei." Gen Imai added, "The team and I have been training every morning for about two hours with Pito Cruz; he is our strength and conditioning coach and he has been working us real hard. Later on at night we train our judo and work our technique, stretch and do sparring. All the hard work and training put in over these last few months will only be a stepping stone to what they will be facing when they go up against the best in the Asia region."

Imai also said, "This is going to be a real high-caliber tournament and everyone else is training real hard, but I feel in good shape right now compared to any other tournament that I have been to. Thanks a lot to Pito because he has helped me out a lot and also my teammates have really encouraged me and motivated me to train real hard."

Blas added, "My personal goal is medal for sure if I don't, then I know I have to train harder, but my goal is to medal and this is all in preparation for the 2012 Games in London."