Circle of Friends in Hamilton, May 12th

On Saturday, May 12th, two carloads of Prostyle students (one carload with Alison, one with me) were in Hamilton to compete at Jeff Burrough’s (of Libery Karate) Circle of Friends Tournament. Although we were only eight competitors, we did extremely well:

Aditya Devgan- 2nd in weapons, 1st in kata, 1st in sparring.
Alison Ferguson – 1st in weapons, 2nd in kata, 1st in sparring.
Darien Ferguson – 2nd in weapons, 5th in kata.
Jordan Ferguson – 1st in weapons, 1st in kata, 1st in sparring.
Taylor Ferguson – 4th in weapons, 5th in kata, 2nd in sparring.
James Heaton – 1st in musical weapons, 3rd in weapons, 1st in sparring, 1st in team forms.
Imran Jaffer – 2nd in musical weapons, 1st in weapons, 1st in kata, 1st in team forms.
Dirk Muir – 2nd in musical weapons, 1st in weapons, 2nd in kata, 2nd in sparring, 1st in family kata, 1st in team forms.

Our sole kyu belt representative, Aditya Devgan, received second in weapons, first in kata and then first in sparring too (although his hard-hitting backfist lost him a few points in warnings – I guess they aren’t as sturdy in SW Ontario as in this area!).

The junior black belt divisions were quite large. However, Jordan Ferguson was our triple crown winner for the day (against 12 and under, girls and boys together), although Darien Ferguson also had a great showing (2nd in) and 5th in kata) as did Taylor, who was 2nd in fighting (I “coached” him – i.e. I watched him clean some clocks – great job!) , 4th in weapons and 5th in kata. Imran won his weapons and his kata, and got 2nd in musical, even though he used James’ music (I guess he should check his CD case before we leave for a tournament).

Of the adults, Alison did a great job, with second in forms and first in weapons (although the only one, if she competed against the 18-34 competitor, Alison would have won, IMO). James won musical weapons but then had some exhaustion mishaps and ended third in weapons. He made up for it by winning his fighting. Meanwhile I was running all over the place, getting second in musical, first in weapons (only one there!), second in kata (to my brother – grrr) and second in fighting (first time in four years), again to my brother (double grrr).

The most fun (i.e. we won money) must have been the team forms. In the synchronized family kata division, Jeff (my twin brother) and I put on a good show using Shorinji-ryu Chinto to win the division. Then for the team katas division, James, Imran and I won (taking 3 of the top five spots to do it – we won by only 3/100ths of a point!). This is the first leg for the overall team kata championships – two more to go.

The kata grands also went well, but no one placed. Imran was second for the juniors, and I was second for the adults. Oh well.

For videos from the tournament (only the katas), you can download them from http://www.yousendit.com/ via links I will post by the end of today at www.geocities.com/dirkvmuir/tournydownloads1.html since I don’t have a DVD burner! If you have any other requests, ask, and I might have it on file.

Now for the WKA Team Canada Nationals …