USA Iron Man Competition

Julian Waters of Maryland won the 2002 Iron Man Competition, playing an incredible (and record) 347 tournament singles matches! Along the way, he won 45 events, and was runner-up 19 times. (This includes five doubles wins, with doubles and hardbat not counted among the 347.) Dragging along his trusty Spintech blades and rubber, he played 27 USATT sanctioned tournaments, the bulk of them Maryland Giant RR and Circuit tournaments. He was also the 2002 MDTTA $1000 MD Circuit points winner. 45-year-old Julian started at a 600 level playing at the Maryland TT Center in Gaithersburg 10 years ago, and since then took many lessons with Jack Huang and Cheng Yinghua. In 2001, at age 44, he reached his goal of breaking 2000 in the ratings. In 2002 he often played over 20 matches a day, outlasting younger competitors. On one Sunday he played 23 – and went 22-1!