Andrea and Craig with their new baby girl Lily Rowan Carroll, born Saturday November 10 at 4:33 PM. She weighed in at 6 lbs. 9 oz. CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations to Tony Walby who placed 3rd in the Hatashita International (November 17-18) Sr. division +100 kg.

Hopefully we’ll have more info to come on Tony’s matches and the event.

Javier and Gabriella Gorriz are proud parents of a baby girl, Maria Cristina, born on September 15th  weighing in at 3.88kg — a sister for Carolina. 

Congratulations!

We hope everyone had a great summer and now ready to get back into the fall routine.

First of all, I want to thank all of you for all the good wishes during my recent surgery. My ankle fracture I sustained a year ago last August really prepared me for my total hip replacement in June. I am now able to do almost everything in moderation but still can’t do “seiza”.

To swing into fall and to thank all of you, we are going to have our “JUICE NIGHT” on Thursday, Sept. 20th, after practice.  Teens are welcome!

This summer, we were all saddened to learn that Christian Monteith, who did Judo with his son, was in a tragic plane crash in Malawi, Africa. Claude Bourdeau also passed away suddenly last month in Cornwall. He trained many years ago at our dojo and was an excellent technician.

On a happier note, congratulations to Rejean Saunois who was married this spring in India and Dan Davies who tied the knot in June!

This year at the Senior Nationals in Trois Rivieres, bronze medals were won by Tony Walby and Jennifer Landry.  Britt Quinlan and Ann Larouche placed second in Katame-no-Kata qualifying them to compete at the Pan Am Judo Championships in Montreal where a few weeks later, they won bronze medals in Katame-no-Kata.  Congratulations!

After the competition, Ms. Kuniko Takeuchi, 7th dan, Kata Director of the Pan Am and USA Judo, came to Ottawa to instruct the key points and judging techniques in Nage-no-Kata, Katame-no Kata and Ju-no Kata.  We are planning to have her back after the World Master’s in December.

A number of Kata competitions are coming up and as well, a Yudansha Exam is planned for March. Mr. Michio Fukushima, 8th dan from the Kodokan will be doing another seminar in January/ February.

Shiai notices will be posted on the Judo Ontario site and international competitions on the Judo Canada sites.

In  KENDO, we are pleased to announce that in June, Mr. Mike Arai was promoted to the rank of 5th dan. Mr. Arai is the children’s Kendo teacher. Congratulation!.

We held two well attended judo summer camps in July and August. Thanks to the following experts for conducting sessions at our camps. Mike Arai for kendo, Brent Rockburn for aikido, Francois Beaulieu for weapons (bo and kali sticks) Sean Macfadyen for wrestling and Phil for mixed martial arts. Thanks to judo instruction from Nathalie Gosselin, Tony Walby, Catherine Biggs, Phil and his daughters. Christy Takahashi organized origami, Emi Takahashi organized the soccer and showed some hip hop, and Catherine Biggs spoke about nutrition. We also lucked out in the weather this year on our excursions to Westboro beach. Cindy Nhann and Holly Mosienko also volunteered their time to help.

Zdravo! (that means Hello in Slovenian)

I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far. This will be the first of a few e-mails that I will send while I am away in Europe. I’ve been here for a week now and I’m having a great time! I arrived in Vienna last Monday, and I spent the few days I had there visting some churches, going to museums (including an ancient musical instrument museum that was quite interesting), walking around the city, and touring 2 palaces. The highlights of my time in Vienna were:

1) My visit to Schonbrunn Palace (which was the summer residence of the Hapsburgs - The Austrian Royal family that was in power for many years up until the early 20th century). It was a spectacular palace, I’d say better than Versailles because it was more furnished. The palace also had some nice gardens, a palm house, and a zoo which I went to as well.

2) Seeing the Lipizzaner stalions doing their morning exercises at the Spanish riding school. Although it was boring when they were just trotting around, the jumps they did more than made up for it. No shows were on when I was there, so that was the next best I could do.

3) I went to see an amazing Mozart/Strauss concert in the grand ballroom of Schonbrunn Palace. It made me feel as if I were back in the 17th-18th century! The hall was gorgeous and the musicians were very entertaining. Vienna is an amazing city! I highly recommend going there. I’m hoping I’ll get to see an opera at the Vienna Opera house when I go back before returning to Canada. I found out they sell standing tickets for 2-3 Euros!

After Vienna, I headed off to Celje Slovenija for my first of 2 tournaments. I didn’t get to see much of Celje because I was focusing on my tournament, but I will be back in Slovenija in a couple of weeks, so I’ll get to see the country then. But from what I’ve seen, Slovenija is very pretty.

This was actually one of the more fun international tournaments I’ve been to, although I’ve had better fighting days (and I’ve had worse as well). I had a bye the first round, and then I won my first fight against a Belgian. I lost in the quarter finals to a Slovenian girl (whom I probably could have beaten had I fought a little better). Then I lost my repechage match to a German by yuko. I think I finished 9th, and we were about 20-25 in my category. They decided to have the matches only go 4 minutes instead of 5 for the prelims because there were so many people at the tournament. I had about 2-3 hours break in between each fight, which was not fun because it was like starting the tournament all over again for each fight.

I left this morning for Sarajevo, although I missed one of my train connections and I ended up having to spend the day in Zagreb, Croatia. I think it’s one of my favourite cities so far. All of the museums are closed on Mondays, so I pretty much just walked around, but I had a very nice day. I will be taking the night train to Sarajevo tonight.

After the 2 hours of sleep I got last night (of course we all had to go out after the tournament!), and the little sleep I will get on the train tonight, I anticipate I’ll be exhausted tomorrow! Oh well, I only have a couple of days in Bosnia, so I want to do as much sightseeing as possible. I will have to have my revenge at the tournament as well!

So, that’s it for my trip so far. I’ll send some more updates about every week. And if any of you are so inclined, I would love to hear how you’re making out!

Take care, Jen

On January 3, Hugo Renaud (4th Dan and head of the adult kendo class) will be leaving for Tokyo for three months to train in preparation for his 5th dan exam next year.  Adult kendo classes will continue as per usual.

Mike Arai is arranging a lunch party for Huey on the 17th at Du Barry’s at the corner of River Rd. and Montreal Rd.  Please contact Mike at Suisha Gardens if you would like to attend.

Katherine