Results for the Takahashi dojo judoka who attended the 2008 Canadian National Judo Championships held in Quebec City May 23-25.
Tony Walby (+100K) took gold which makes Tony the undisputed Canadian heavy weight judo champion in 2008. Atta fire champ!
Britt Quinlan and Ann Larouche took silver in the Ju no Kata. Congratulations ladies, it was a very good performance.
Evan O’Leary (-73) placed 7th. Evan had a very physically strong opponent in the first match who favoured the drop kata-guruma. Evan displayed a masterful feat of acrobatics in twisting out of the first kata-guruma attack, only to get caught with a leg pick a few moments later giving up a yuko to his opponent. The match went the distance with the decision going to the Québec fighter.
Evan fared much better in his next match with Evan winning with two nice kouchi makakomi for 2 yukos, ending the match with yet another kouchi makakomi for ippon.
Evan’s third match ended early with his opponent Berdard-Nadeau from Québec diving in for a drop soeinage with a rolling twist in the opposite direction, like some kind of weird kata guruma, for the ippon.
Congratulations Evan. The kouchi makakomi is awesome.
Laua Stellato (-48) had 2 matches: Nicole Tsukihima from Alberta and Catherine Roberge-Theriault from Québec.
In the first fight Alberta came up on top with a drop seoinage for ippon fairly early in the match.
The second match saw Laura fighting very aggressively taking the Québec fighter to the mat early in the bout with a leg pick. It was a good move even though it didn’t score. Laura continued to work on the ground but couldn’t get anything going and the referee stood them up. Laura continued to press the attack on Roberge-Theriault but was tripped up with a kouchi and hit the mat giving up a yuko to her opponent. Roberge continued into ground work wrenching Laura on to her back for a pin which Laura escaped and the two fighters were stood back up. Laura went in for a drop seoinage which was stopped by Roberge. Roberge took the advantage and again rolled Laura over onto her back and into a pin, which gave the match to Québec.
Congratulations to Laura Stellato who fought with a big heart and tremendous spirit against 2 tournament savy black belts. She gave it everything that she had and should be very proud of herself for getting out there and fighting in the Canadian National Judo Championships where most of the contestants were seasoned black belt fighters.
Dave Stevenson and Glenn Cheriton entered the Goshin Jutsu no Kata but came up a little short. Like the shiai, there was some very experienced competitors in the Kata. Dave and Glen look forward to next year to improve their standing.