USJA 2017 Male Athlete of the Year Award

John Jayne has been awarded the ‘2017 Male Athlete of the Year’ award by the United States Judo Association. In April last year John won the Senior US Championship at -100 kg in Salt Lake City, Utah. In June he won both the Junior US and Junior International Championships in Spokane, Washington, at -100 kg. In June John went on to win the Junior Pan American Championship at -100 kg in Cancún, Mexico, winning the final against Brazil in 15 seconds. During July and August John won medals in three Junior European Cup Competitions, including Gold in Arad, Romania. During John’s summer build up to the Junior World Championships John defeated both the Gold and Silver medalists from the 2016 Junior European Championships – both by an ippon score.

John went into the Junior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, in October, seeded first in the -100 kg weight class. On his way to the semi-final John defeated an Azerbaijani, who John had lost to earlier in the year, and defeated the Junior Asian Champion from Mongolia. In the semi-final John lost to the Russian and in the Bronze medal match John lost to the Japanese Champion, consequently finishing in Fifth Place. This is the highest place finish by a US male athelete since a third place finish in 1992; i.e. in the past twenty five years. John finished 2017 ranked third in the world in the International Judo Federation Junior World Ranking List for -100 kg.