The US weight category tournament
is the second biggest tournament held in the US. This year there
were several world tournament fighters who showed up to compete,
including Nicolae Stoian (Romania) and Darmen Sadvakasov
(Russia), both of whom made it to the final day of the worlds.
There were two VKK fighters representing Canada also competing
in the tournament, Tomomi Inoue and myself.
Tomomi's first fight was against Miruyo Ito, who is known as a
world champion kata competitor. Miruyo is also a very tough
fighter with very quick high kicks and a variety of techniques.
Tomomi fought very well, using a great sense of distance to
narrowly avoid kicks and then counter when Miruyo was
off-balance. She also made sure to land the final technique in
the majority of their exchanges. Tomomi had very strong punches,
which landed well, and helped with the flow of the match.
However, Miruyo got a ring out, and landed a head kick and in
the end it came down to a decision where Miruyo won 3 to 1
hikiwake.
I was up next, facing off against Arkadiusz (Chicago), the
fighter who beat me in last year's competition and won the
tournament. Arkadiusz is a very strong punch fighter and so I
had already made the decision to side-step and kick out his
legs. I had better movement than last year, dodging and blocking
the majority of his punches with several unanswered leg kicks.
With about 50 seconds left in the match, I blocked a hook punch
with my elbow, breaking his index finger and he withdrew from
the match.
The next fight was Tomomi's third place match against Zohra from
Los Angeles. Tomomi came out very strong, with explosive punch
combinations that pushed
Zohra out of the ring several times. Tomomi also made good use
of her inside leg kicks and her middle front kick to gain
control of the match, winning third place in the decision.
The last fight was the first place match against Daniel from New
York. The entire match was an in-close battle, with lots of low
kicks and punches, while Daniel threw several high knees. The
match started off well with my low kicks landing, and the
punching battle staying fairly even. As the match dragged on,
though, Daniel started throwing more techniques than I replied
with. In the end, Daniel won the match by a decision of 4 to 0.
This was an excellent tournament, and I came away knowing more
about what I need to work on to improve my fighting abilities. I'd like to
thank IKO Kyokushinkaikan, Sensei Taku Nakamsaka and his LA team
for their effort and time put into the event. Special thanks to
Shihan Stuart Corrigal and IKOK-C for always allowing us to have
special opportunities at international events such as this. We had a great
time during the weekend. Osu!
Mark Berg
Vancouver Kyokushin Karate
The official results