Anthony Turner, Taraje Williams-Murray on way to U.S. Olympic judo team

Anthony Turner, Taraje Williams-Murray on way to U.S. Olympic judo team
Member of the Cuban judo team is missing
By SHARON ROBB South Florida Sun-Sentinel
May 12, 2008

Anthony Turner and Taraje Williams-Murray won to be among judokas who qualified their weight classes for the upcoming Beijing Games on Sunday at the Olympic Zone Cup at the James L. Knight Center in Miami.At least 10 U.S. athletes will be competing at the Summer Olympics in Beijing following the completion of a two-year qualifying process.

Team USA qualified in women's 48kg, 57 kg and 70 kg and men's 60 kg, 66 kg, 73 kg, 81kg, 90 kg, 100 kg and plus-100 kg. Athletes from a nation had to be ranked in the top-three women and top-six men in a weight division from among the 42 Pan American countries.

Athletes must still qualify individually at the upcoming U.S. trials. All 14 Olympic weight divisions will be contested June 13-14 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas where the judo trials will be held simultaneously with wrestling trials. Williams-Murray, who works with Boca Raton's Rhadi Ferguson, a 2004 Olympian, won the 60-kg class and looks to be headed for his second Olympic team spot.

Turner, of Miami, knocked off Jose Vazquez of the Dominican Republic in the 100-plus kg class, avenging an earlier loss to Vazquez, who had beaten Turner on Thursday in the bronze medal match of the Pan American Tournament.

The victory gives Turner the No. 6 slot, enabling a U.S. heavyweight to compete in Beijing.

During the week of competition, the Cuban national team collected 15 gold medals. But a member of the Cuban women's team left the squad at some point Sunday afternoon.

"All we can say for sure right now is that she has left the premises and that she is no longer with the team," USA Judo president Jose Rodriguez said. No Cuban Olympic team had visited Miami in more than 40 years.

Information from wire services was used to supplement this report.

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