The 21st Canadian Kyokushin Championships was successfully conducted by the IKOK-Canada on Saturday, May 8th 2004. The event saw a total of two hundred sixty-six competitors from dojos in British Columbia, Alberta and Los Angels. VKK sent twenty six fighters to this special Kyokushin event and fought in the several different categories.

Nine students of the downtown's children's class entered the event for the first time. They all competed very hard and did their best. One of them, Matthew Ward fought a total of six bouts and finished third. In the knockdown divisions, the first fighter from our dojos to walked to the ring was Philip Eng from the Richmond East Dojo. This was his first experience in tournament fighting but he did exceptionally well. Although he lost in the 1st round he is determined to train harder for the next tournament. Kalani Kawase's hard training finally bore fruits in this event by bringing him up to the final match. He lost there but captured the valuable Silver Medal. Philip's big brother, Angus dominated all his opponent and came up to the final match, where he faced off Pasha from the Vancouver West Dojo. Pasha's middle roundhouse kick caught Angus's body several times but Angus used his physique effectively and charged Pasha. Pasha was forced to back up by the heavier opponent and lost the match. The bout was very closely matched up and its technical level was really high. Nathan Ng from the Richmond East Dojo kept delivering quick combos and won two bouts in a row. In the final match, he fought the Banff dojo's Dakota Hines. The re-match since the last year's Vancouver Cup brought them the same result this time as well. Dakota's left middle roundhouse kicks looked very strong and made Nathan finish second.

Albert Tio from the Vancouver East Dojo just turned fifteen a month ago, meaning he had to fight in the 15-16 year old division. Over the past fourteen months, Albert fought in two Newton Tournaments, the 20th Canadians, Vancouver Cup 2003 and never lost a single match. The winningest VKK fighter broke his own record in this event by acquiring the Gold Medal. Now, he's never lost in five tournaments in a row since Fenbruary last year. Shogo Matsuda from the Downtown Dojo is just the opposite. This became his third tournament to come out with no victory. Shogo simply has to train harder and work on his defensive techniques more. A fourteen-year old, Esther Nathe from the Vancouver East Dojo, seems to has established her name as a powerful female fighter among other dojos. She entered two different divisions in this event and finished 1st in both. On the top of her physical advantage, Esther polished up her techniques for this event. John Bui from the Vancouver East Dojo demonstrated his excellence in fighting spirit and techniques in all the bouts he fought. His high roundhouse kick frequently landed on the opponent's head and enabled him to received the Gold Medal.

Both Pascal and Mayumi from the Downtown Dojo got kicked in the head and lost the 1st round match. This was Pascal's first tournament to enter and he now knows what he has to work on for the next competition. The bout in which Rui from the Downtown Dojo competed resulted exactly like Pascal's. Rui's guard was kept low when he closed in. Then, a high roundhouse kick was released from his opponent and clearly landed. Rui, Mayumi and Pascal must concentrate on their defense. Haoyin Zheng from the Richmond East Dojo looked very strong in his 1st bout. In the 2nd round, his hard high roundhouse kick caught his opponent's head with excessive force resulting in disqualification. Haoyin has excellent stamina and strong spirit but he has to learn how to control power and techniques.

The tension running throughout the War Memorial Gym suddenly became intense when the open division finally began. Seiji Kagomoto from the Downtown Dojo faced the lightweight champion, Sempai Baldalip Thind from the Vernon Dojo. They fought each other two years ago in the Vancouver Cup. Sempai Baldlip won the one sided match at the time. In this competition, they fought toe to toe and the bout went into an extension round. Seiji's inside low kicks caught the left leg numerous times counter-attacking Baldalip's fast punches. Even though Seiji lost, the re-match proved that two years of hard training that Seiji had gone through filled the big gap between the two fighters in terms of their power and technical level. A big hand from the audience was given to the high caliber bout.

Marco, who won in the colored division before, entered the open division for the first time. His opponent, Anthony from Calgary was a much more experienced fighter. Marco tried to stay close to his opponent and punch the body but the plan did not worked. Anthony's front kick and back kick frequently landed in Marco's stomach and slowed him down. Regardless of the result, Marco gained valuable experience which taught him his weaknesses.

Michi Nagase from the Richmond East Dojo trained exceptionally hard for this event. The level of his stamina and techniques have dramatically gone up lately. In the 1st round, he faced Sempai Shawn Phillips from Newton. Michi kept on throwing sharp upper cuts to the body and forced his opponent to back up throughout the bout. In the 2nd round, Michi used the same strategy and concentrated all his energy on delivering various punching combos. But this time, he received several strong low kicks to the left leg in return. Although he won, the leg was extensively damaged. Then, he finally came to the final and fought Sempai Joel Tobin.

Joel Tobin is one of the most well-known fighters in North America. Since he moved to Vancouver in January this year, he has been training with us at the Richmond East Dojo. Michi, Seiji and Joel always train together and spar each other. In this event, Joel was in good shape dominating all his opponents. In his first bout, it took only twenty seconds to take Ippon by a devastating middle roundhouse kick. The semi final saw him again win by Ippon with a high knee kick.

In the final match between Joel and Michi, Joel again took his opponent down within one minute and won the 1st place by the way of knock-out with a high front kick. Those bouts clearly demonstrated that there's no comparison between Joel's techniques and the other fighters'. He certainly deserves both the Canadian title and the Technical Award. Although Michi lost in the final, he should be equally praised for the strong performance he displayed in the event. It was natural that the green belt was selected to receive the Spirit Award.

I sincerely admire the level of commitment  that they made to daily training, and I am very happy for them that the two fighters were able to keep the promise they made before the tournament: Let's fight each other in the final. We can do it!

Fighting in a tournament gives you a priceless experience. What's more important is not to beat your opponent. It is the process of preparing yourself for the event. The moment you decide to enter the tournament, your battle has already begun. You are forced to cope with various matters: how to create time for training while having a full time job and a family, how to squarely face your weaknesses, how to look after your own body to keep it in good condition. Those are only the few examples. The bigger commitment you make to your planned training, the bigger sense of achievement you gain. Speaking from my own experience, the Kyokushin tournaments are like magic: you become a new guy after each tournament. Osu.

Click here for the complete results of the 21st Canadian Championships.