They’re Winners in the Rough and Tumble World of Judo

When Micky Matsumoto and Jan Trussell take to the mats at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., for their respective matches this weekend at the finals of the World Championship Trials, hope that there are no small children or squeamish spectators around because things could get ugly.

Matsumoto, who will compete at 123 pounds, has been known to manually take surgical stitches out of his body before matches.

Trussell, who fights at 114 pounds, also has a hard-nosed past. Competing in Russia in 1988, she broke an opponent’s arm with 10 seconds left in the match when the woman would not submit.

“At my last tournament, when I was on a break, I heard another coach shout to the girl I was wrestling, ‘Come on, she’s just rough,’ ” Trussell said. “And in my mind, I went, ‘Yeah, I am.’ While we were fighting, I really got rough with her. It made me happy.”

Both Matsumoto and Trussell are rated No. 1 in the United States at their respective weights. Matsumoto, who is a Los Angeles County sheriff, is the 1988 U.S. National Champion and won a gold medal at the U.S. International Invitational Tournament in November.

Trussell is the reigning U.S. National Champion, a title she has held three times. She also won the 1988 Russian Open, has won three U.S. Olympic Festival Gold Medals and has competed in every U.S. Olympic Festival since 1983. She also is a world-class wrestler and owns the L.A. Judo Club in Gardena, where she and Matsumoto train.

Along with their accolades, each has had serious injuries. Matsumoto, 33, has dislocated an elbow, separated a shoulder and torn ligaments in both knees. Trussell, 28, broke her back in 1983.

“A lot of people groan about their injuries,” Trussell said. “It’s like you are disappointed if you don’t hurt something in practice. Micky got bit by a dog, and it almost ripped his arm off. He went to the nationals and afterwards went, ‘Hey you guys, look at this.’ ”

Matsumoto said: “The night before my match, I could not straighten my arm. So I took the stitches out.”

This weekend’s matches determine who will represent the United States in the 1991 World Championships and the 1991 Pan Am Games. Starting with five qualifiers, finalists were determined three weeks ago through match competition.

Matsumoto will wrestle Clifton Sunada, whom he beat earlier this year. Trussell goes against JoAnn Quiring, whom she has beaten in eight of their 13 meetings. It is a best two-of-three match competition. Each match lasts four minutes, and the winner is determined by a point system that assigns points for each takedown, depending on how significant it is.

Matches can also end by submission, or special types of point combinations that force the referee to stop the fighting.

“The player Micky’s going to fight does not try to win by points,” said John Ross, who coaches Matsumoto and Trussell. “He tries to win decisions. He’ll keep breaking Micky’s hands off and then make weak attacks so at the end he looks better. He looks aggressive and it’s hard to beat a person like that. I mean, his attacks are not effective but he gets a lot of them in.

“We’ve tried to work on controlling that guy’s tempo and not let him move that much,” Ross said. “When he comes in to break a grip, we’ll get an attack in. We’ve worked on trying to control attacks and get more points, because (Sunada) does not try to score. He tries to win the decision.”

Trussell’s opponent also is a technical wrestler. Trussell believes she can use force to her advantage.

“When I fight, I am really good on the mat, so everyone tries to stand up against me,” Trussell said. “A lot of girls, they have good technique, but they are not very tough. If I rough a girl up--especially (Quiring), she’s kind of soft--it gets to them.

“If you rough Quiring up a little bit, she gets scared and does not fight real well, so I’m going to go out and try and rough her up as much as I can. To hurt her, make her scared, and intimidate her. She does not fight real well when she’s roughed up and scared.”