Gotay's dream of Olympic gold comes up short

Harlingen-trained judoist Valerie Gotay's dream of Olympic gold at the Beijing Summer Games came to an end in the second round of the women's lightweight preliminaries on Monday.

Gotay, a member of the United States team who trains year-round at the USA Judo National Training Site in Harlingen, started the day strong.

In the first round she defeated Gulzat Uralbayeva of Kazakhstan.

But in the Round of 16, Gotay met her match against Spain's Isabel Fernandez.

Italy's Giulia Quintavalle won the gold medal in the finals, defeating Deborah Gravenstijn of the Netherlands.

Winning the bronzes were Brazil's Ketleyn Quadros, who defeated Australia's Maria Pekli in overtime, and China's Xu Yan, who upset world No. 2-ranked Barbara Harel of France.

DF