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Delpopolo is Golden in Great Britain
October 1, 2011
Liverpool, Great Britain – 22 year old Nick Delpopolo went 5-0 to win gold at the GB World Cup. Nick was the first match of the tournament and he defeated David Gonzales of Spain by yuko to advance to the second round against Jan Gosiewski (GBR). Delpopolo was held scoreless by the Brit for a full 5 minutes but needed only 9 seconds in overtime to score another yuko and take the victory. Moving into the quarter final Nick squared off against Marcelo Contini (BRA), Delpopolo found himself in another golden score match and needed a full 8 minutes to defeat Contini by unanimous decision. In the semi final Nick faced Miguel Romero of Spain. Nick led the match by a yuko off of two penalties given to the Spaniard then with 15 seconds left in the bout Nick footswept Romero for a huge ippon that brought the stadium to its feet. Fittingly Nick’s gold medal match was the last match of the day. Emmanuel Nartey (GHA) was the only man standing in the way of Delpopolo and a gold medal. The match started off with Nartey lifting Delpopolo high in the air with an ippon seoi-nage that Nick was able to spin out of. Delpopolo answered back by knocking Nartey down with a big switch attempt that Nartey avoided by taking a seat on his bum. With 1:20 remaining Nick dropped under Nartey with morote seoi nage and then stood up and buried him with ko-ouchi for a ippon to become the first American man to win this World Cup.
Nick had this to say of his gold medal performance “I recently relocated back to the Jason Morris Judo Center (JMJC) in NY, where the team is outfitted in black and silver sweats and also plays heavy metal music during training. As I was walking out onto the mat in the finals AC/DC’s “Back in Black” started playing and I had a conscious thought in my head that it was a sign.” laughed Delpopolo, he finished by saying “I want to take this opportunity to thank Jason and Teri for helping me find my groove again!”.
Morris had this to say of Delpopolo’s victory “I’m very excited for Nick as this is a terrific win for him, coming off of a disappointing finish at the Worlds Nick’s confidence was low and this is just the thing to get the ball rolling in the right direction again and a solid mental boost for the rest of the season”.
