Saturday, February 13, 2016

Faouzi wins at the French Open

Faouzi Zerrouck, one of our Instructors recently won an International Tournament in Nice, France.

It had over 2,000 competitors.
In Faouzi’s category,  which is the Master Division under 90 kg, there were 25 competitors.
There was great satisfaction at this tournament for Faouzi because he threw the Competitor who beat him at the last European Championship in December,2015 for an Ippon in his semi finals match.

Congratulations

RESULTS FROM VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL OPEN FEBRUARY 13,2016

We had 5 juniors and 1 senior participate.
We had won 3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze.
The Juniors did exceptionally well.  3 of the 5 juniors participated in their very first tournament.

Nikolay, Jerome and Cameron all placed 1st.
They won all of their matches with Ippon.

Sofie received a silver.  She fought her Opponent twice, losing both time by decision.
Her Opponent weighed 10 kg more than  Sofie. Both were Orange belt.
In her second match, both scored Ippon. Sofie scored with a Seionage.  Sofie had her Opponent in Kesagatame for at least 10 seconds which should have given her the match but unfortunately it was missed by the Referee.
The referee did not check the scoreboard to see how many seconds Sofie held her Opponent for the holddown.

Jaime had 1 win and 2 losses for bronze.  In both of his losses, Jaimie was ahead on points before his opponents held him down for newaza.
Jaimie scored his wazai (1/2 points) and yuko by either Seionage , Taiotoshi, Osotogari or Ouchigari. For his first tournament, he was poised and in control of the matches.
The same for Cameron, Nikolay and Jerome. They controlled and dominated their Opponents attacking with throws and following up into Newaza.

Djuro Miladinovic was our only Senior.  Djuro had not practiced at all in January and missed 1 week in February because of the Flu. Considering his lack of practice going into the Tournament he fought competently.
It’s the best outing for Djuro in about a year.  He fought Arie Nishimura from Steveston and Dante from Ishikawa both Shodans and Lefties.
In his first match against Ari, Ari finally got Djuro for Wazari with his Left Handed Taiotoshi.  Djuro set himself up by standing at right angle to his Opponent.  His Opponent moved in sticking his left leg at Djuro’s left ankle which flipped Djuro on his side.
In his second match against Dante, Djuro made a mental mistake rushing at Dante who dropped him with his left Seionage while on his knees. He Scored a Wazari.
When you fight against an Opponent like Dante who is very quick and drops to his Knee to execute, you don’t run at him nor do you give him any room to maneuver. You crowd him , hold him close to your body , (fight him at close quarter)
 forcing his head to look down at your feet by gripping his  lapel high on the collar and get your knuckles into his neck. This will make him very uncomfortable. He will attempt to wriggle out by dipping his head at the same time move into his throw. When he attempts this, you drag him down forcefully with both of your arms as you are stepping back with both feet and turn him over.

Well done and congratulations to our Competitors.
Unfortunately, not many seniors turned up at this tournament.  Those that did in the Black Belt division were tuning up for the next big one next month at the Oval.

Photos from the tournament will be available on shortly on our You Tube Site.