Unflustered at the prospect of fighting a multiple WKA world champion, Matt was truly outstanding for the first 10-15 seconds of the fight, taking the fight to Dom with 1-0 early lead and holding it for about 5 seconds. Matt kept it close for the next 10 seconds, before Dom got into a groove, going on to an 8-1 win. Matt later lost his 3rd fight to an awkward southpaw (those damn southpaws), but achieved his goal at his first WKA tryouts, finishing 4th and qualifying for the WKA Canadian Championships.
It was also Shivani's first time at the WKA tryouts and she did really well in the under-12 kata division (considering she's only 8). With her work ethic and James' private lessons, she's definitely going to qualify one of these years.
Everyone did very well at the tryouts, with the Ferguson's taking home a large haul (9 in total) of medals, highlighted by Darien winning the under-12 kata division (with 22 competitors) and Taylor getting 4th in a tough weapons division (behind Nicholas Merlin and Imran) and winning his fighting division. At one point, Darien, Taylor, and Jordan were all fighting at the same time, leaving Alison torn between which ring to be at (for the record, she was at Darien's ring).
Selina was her usual self, winning her fights easily before meeting Jordan in the final. Jordan was extremely agressive, beating 2 girls that both outweighed her by quite a bit, before running into what she called a "brickwall" (Selina) in the final. Earlier, in 13-17 kata division, Selina and Jordan both did really well, with Selina finishing 2nd (to Amanda Bentley-de Sousa) and Jordan finishing 7th.
Alison rounded out the Ferguson's haul with a 1st and a couple of 2nd's in weapons, kata, and fighting.
In addition to his usual haul of medals in weapons (2 silvers), Imran fought well to finish 3rd in the 13-17 boys heavywieght division, behind Lorenzo (Steve Anderson) and Luke Dufour (Douvris).
James avenged his loss to Luveth from Douvris at the 2007 Canadian Open to win the mens heavyweight division - earlier he won the mens musical weapons. Sorry James, but the video camera battery died just before your fight - but I can vouch for you that it was an excellent fight.
In spite of not having much time to practice (busy with Yoga teacher training) Dirk qualified for for traditional kata, hardstyle kata, and weapons.
I finished 4th in both weapons and kata, qualifying for both events. I am happy with my results, given the veteran mens division has gotten a lot tougher this year with another new 35 year old competitor, Jeff Liotta. Last year, Jeff won the 18-34 mens weapons gold at the WKA worlds champsionships and was seeded number one the NASKA circuit a couple of years ago.
I am out of town this week (Tuesday-Thursday) and will not have time to post pictures from the video until I return. PS, don't forget, if you're reading this, you should be going to the Cobra tournament this Saturday, April 12 - I'll see you there!
Preliminary Results:
- Darien - 2nd weapons, 1st kata, 1st fighting
- Taylor - 4th weapons , 1st fighting
- Jordan - 2nd weapons, 7th kata, 2nd fighting
- Alison - 1st weapons, 2nd kata, 2nd fighting
- Selina - 2nd kata, 1st fighting
- Imran - 2nd weapons, 2nd musical weapons, 4th kata, 3rd fighting
- James - 3rd weapons, 1st musical weapons, 1st fighting
- Dirk - (?) weapons, 7th kata , (?) traditional kata
- Matt - 4th fighting
- Norm - 4th weapons, 4th kata
- Shivani - competed in weapons, kata
* top eight qualify for the 2008 WKA Canadian Champsionships
