On Saturday, June 20th, All American Open was held at Hunter College Sportsplex in New York city.
 
In preparation for this tournament, I have attended three dojo training and two fighter's class every week and also travelled to Sensei Dean's Poco dojo fighter class on Sundays. Addition to these, I have done Wrech Beach stairs training and Uphill sprint run once a week as well for my lower body strength and cardio stamina.  Since All American is the open weight tournament, to gain body strength, I went to gym for weight training in the morning four time a week.
 
Because of my work schedule, I could not go to NY the day before to weight-in. I left Vancouver on Friday night and arrived at New York JFK around 7am on the tournament day. I went to the venue directly from the airport but no one was there yet. Around 8am, teams from Calgary and LA arrived at the same time. Sensei Brad from Calgary dojo kindly offered me to go back and stay at his hotel room until the opening ceremony which would start 3pm. So I managed to get a few hours sleep and got ready for the fight.
 
My opponent this time was Nicolae Stoian who was well-known on the European Championship circuit and 2008 & 2009 European Middleweight Champion. Before I left Vancouver, I studied his style on the Internet and DVD and came to the conclusion that he was the strong puncher and very aggressive fighter.  My goal for this fight was to stay calm, fully analyze the opponent moves, and focus on lateral footwork with execution of counter-attacks.
 
As the fight started, his punching pressure was not as strong as I'd expected. I tried to block those punches and move sideways. I was not as nervous as last time I fought in NY and could maintain cool head all the way to the end. The number of techniques we threw against each other was almost same. But I felt his techniques were more powerful than mine. That must have caught the eye of the corner judges. The two corner judges gave "Hikiwake"(draw) and the other two raised their flag in favor of Stoian. Then, Main Referee gave his decision to Stoian. I lost the fight by decision with a score of 3-0 .
 
In spite of the loss, the fight helps me realize the good points that I displayed on the mat and the things that I will have to work on to improve my skills for next tournament. It was great experience. I will try to do better on next tournament.
 
I would like to thank Shihan Gorai and NY dojo students to host such a great tournament.
Thank you to Sensei Taku from LA and Sensei Brad from Calgary for supporting me in the event.
 
I would like to thank all the VKK students for their support, especially those who pitched in the donation for me. That made it a lot easier for me to travel to the expensive Big Apple.
I felt extra-strength in the fight because I had your strong support.
 
Lastly I would like to thank Sensei Tats and the Fighter Class students for training with me all along. We have to keep training hard to be strong as a team.
 
Arigato Gozaimshita.
 
Osu.
 
Michi Nagase
Vancouver Kyokushin Karate

from left Jordan (Calgary), Michi, Kancho Matsui (IKO Director), Sensei Brad (Calgary)

A group photo of the participants of the Kancho Seminar at the NY Dojo

Results (Men's Open)

1. Krzysztof Habraszka  (Poland)

2. Steven Cujick (Australia)

3. Nicolae Stoian (Romania)

4. Djemar Belkhoudja (France)

5. Ivan Marusic (Serbia)

6. Michal Krzak (Poland)

7. Keiji Ouchi (USA)

8. Slawomir Was (USA)

Click the poster to visit the event organizer's web site for the official results of all divisions.
More photos will soon be up on www.europeankyokushin.org