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Middletown martial artist Kayla Harrison, 16, drew world recognition earlier this month by becoming the first American judo fighter ever to win the prestigious Junior Belgian Ladies Open, in Arlon, Belgium.

Just this past weekend, at the Midwest Judo Championships in suburban Chicago, Harrison dominated the women's 70-kilogram division to win without giving up a point.

Her success continues to gain the attention of one former U.S. Olympic team coach.

"We've sent our top junior athletes in the U.S. program to the Belgian Open for the past six years and nobody's ever reached the finals before," said Jim Hrbek, the current chairman of Junior Athlete Performance for USA Judo. "And then she went to Chicago and just dominated that event. Nobody could touch her there."

The Belgium event is considered one of the most difficult open tournaments in Europe and had several junior and senior world champions in the tournament field.

"I didn't realize it was such a big deal until I called home to tell my mom the news and she started crying," Harrison said. "Then I realized this was something pretty big."

Harrison, who trains out of the Renshuden Judo Academy in Springboro, used a shoulder throw in overtime to defeat British and U.S. Open bronze medalist Kelita Zupancic, of Canada, in the tournament semifinals. Then she pinned Germany's Barbara Bandel to win the championship.

"Everybody has one or two specialty moves in this sport, but at Chicago, Kayla just crushed everybody else," Hrbek added. "In the finals (against Jennifer Tutass, of Colorado Springs, Colo.), she used five different throws to win."

Harrison won her pool of round-robin competition in the women's senior division, but was later pinned by 2006 Rome World Cup champion Elisa Schmidtke of Germany.

Despite her recent success, Harrison has dropped to a No. 2 national ranking. That's because Ronda Rousey, a 20-year-old national champion from Massachusetts ranked fourth in the world at 63 kg., has moved up in weight class into Harrison's 70 kg. group. Rousey recently won the 70 kg. division of the Vienna World Cup to earn more points than Harrison in the national rankings.

"With Ronda moving up like that, it's just motivated me to work that much harder each day," Harrison said. "If I want to make the Olympics, I know I have to beat her."

Rousey edged Harrison in their last meeting a year ago. The two fighters could next meet at the U.S. Senior Nationals in April in Miami, Fla.

"The lines are set. Whichever one of those two wants to compete in the Olympic Games, they'll eventually have to beat the other one," Hrbek said. "Harrison is a lot closer to Rousey's abilities than everyone thinks. I think it would be a hell of a fight between those two right now.

"Whoever fights her, Harrison has to be regarded as a serious contender for our Olympic team."

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2851 or jbombatch@coxohio.com.