Team USA - 2007 Taizhou International Tournament

Nearly one hundred Shuai Chiao competitors from a dozen different countries converged on the Chinese city of Taizhou, south of Shanghai. The Taizhou 2007 International Invitational Shuai Jiao Tournament ran from November 20th to November 26th, and all participants enjoyed the modern facilities and professional, well-run, event.

Many European countries sent competitors, but were hard-pressed to fill all of their team positions. The European Championships held just the month before in Spain had depleted the energy and funds of several teams. The USA Team was also short of competitors and only fielded players in six of the ten weight classes in the men’s division, and in only three on the women’s team.

However, despite the lack of full teams, the USA finished a strong fourth place, the highest placing of any non-Chinese team. The Chinese had two full teams in addition to a team from Mongolia.

The USA team’s main advantage was the presence of several seasoned competitors and previous USA National champions: Daniel Cliff, James Van Doran, Nick Masi, Charles Lin, and Christina Roman had all competed before at the international level.

USA Team Individual Places at the Taizhou International:

• Charles Lin (Cupertino, CA) — 3rd

• Nick Masi (Virginia) — 3rd

• Daniel Cliff (Cleveland, OH) — 4th

• Ian Donovan (Columbus, OH) — 4th

• James Van Doran (Cleveland, OH) — 4th

• Krisanne Litinas (Cleveland, OH) — 5th

• Christina Roman (Cupertino, OH) — 5th

• Krista Curtner (Cleveland, OH) — 6th

• Keith Judelman (Bellingham, WA) — 6th

• Ernest Smoot (Cleveland, OH) — 6th