Glasgow at 12th World Kendo Champs

Sue Lytollis

05 July 2003

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Well here we are in a Glaswegian heatwave on Day One of the world kendo champs. Liz and I have been meeting old friends as well as seeing the NZ Kendo team in action - the women's that is! You can say that today was pretty special for NZ Women's Kendo because NZ made it to the top 16 and were beaten by Canada for the quarter finals. The other most interesting aspect of this day was the surprise visit of the Queen and Prince Phillip to the champs. The Queen was dressing in a rather bright yellow outfit that someone near me described as a strange coloured bogu. She saw a demonstration of kendo by some eminent Japanese men while the women fought on. Before she left she met key members of commonwealth Kendo including Gerard Egerton and Sachiyo Lee. I am sure they enjoyed this moment.

But first, the individuals so here goes.

Kiwi women did very well in their line ups for fights. Sachiyo Lee was HOT in her fighting today being the only kiwi woman to win her round and enter the next phase of the competition. She came up against a Canadian (bet her with MM) and a Malaysian (DM). in the next round she met a Japanese team member Baba and was beaten after some very spirited fighting by a MD. But - Baba went on to win the individuals! So Sachiyo can say she was knocked out by the winner. Her form was consistent and fiery.

Other kiwi women did well and I am sure this team have come away once more, more experienced and aware of the world kendo level of fighting. Julia took on Mexico and Korea. She held out Korea and was beaten by only one point - M. Alice had a Japanese opponent who took two men on her. She took her Singaporean opponent to Encho and was defeated by a hiki kote. Loreena had a Swiss and Hungarian opponent. I think she won against the Swiss woman but lost to the Hungarian (forgive me any mistakes as the competition was held over 4 shiaijo and I may have made some errors in my reporting). Mariana came up against a Russian and a Swiss opponent but sadly lost her fights although I saw one fight and thought she showed good form. In fact when i say we lost a fight, it was not always in the first 30 seconds or anything like that, we showed that we could hold them off but in some cases the opponent took the opportunity and came in decisively. During the individuals all our kiwi men were there supporting our women, Gerard coach and Takahashi S coach were hovering round and being great cauldrons of advice. Liz and my Kiwi flags were flying and I am sure we made an impression for our small country. For those who are wondering, Japan dominated the winning positions in the individuals (yawn, anything new?).

Even better things came out of our team event. Out first team fight was in a pool with UK and Norway. UK beat Norway and then we went on to beat Norway with final score being two hikiwakes, one win to Norway and two wins to NZ - Loreena and Sachiyo. Then the definitive fight was against UK. Julia was defeated by Rathbone by kote only; Loreena drew her fight with Burch with a kote apiece; Marianna was defeated by Yoshikawa by a men only; Alice defeated by Hahn-morris by two kote but Sachiyo took out Riddoch with M and K. The good news was that two teams from each round went into the next round and NZ and Uk went forward.

NZ's next team fight was with Canada! Now Canada is quite formidable. They have hosted a world kendo champs in the past and have a strong history of strong female Kendo. I think we did quite well against them, even though we were defeated by them. Loreena lost to Hayashi by men only; Julia drew her fight against Fukushima and Marianna lost to Robilliard KM; Alice lost to Hao by two kote but again Sachiyo in fine form defeated Akitaya with a kote in these grueling fights. Although we did not progress further up the rung, Sachiyo would have been very pleased when she was awarded a fighting spirit prize for her efforts in the team event.

One thing we can say about the team events is that Australia did very well. This team got into the quarter finals and defeated Germany and Finland until they were taken out by Taipei in the quarter finals. Mel Smith won a fighting spirit award during the team event.

As is typical with these events, Japan and Korea met in the first round and japan won but both went on to climb out of their respective groups to again meet in the finals. This was a tense affair as Korea is very hungry to win against Japan. Japan took first blood in the finals with Tsubota taking a Men against Lee in the first fight. Okada did a dramatic Tsuki against Kim in fight two to take this one for Japan and Murayama and Choi drew the third fight. Park beat Horiguchi in the fourth fight with a Do so things were getting tense in the last fight for the finals. If Korea beat Japan decisively in the last fight then we would have had to have a fight off. However this was not to be. Arishima beat Byun with a Do in the last moments of this 5minute fight and so the title went to Japan again.

There are 42 countries competing at this champs and when Liz and I fought at the goodwill gi-geiko later today we saw country names we never heard of Aruba for example. The other interesting aspect of the champs is the many bogu-ya-sans selling their wares upstairs so we were able to sniff around there and find some good deals for our club. Anyway it is amazing being here and I have heard that the next one will be in Chinese Taipei which I assume is Taiwan - a lot cheaper for kiwis to get to, so put it in your diary for 2006.

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Sue Lytollis is an instructor at Hutt Kendo Club. Kendo 5th Dan, NZ World Kendo rep 1985, 1988, silver medallist UK Women's Champs 1999 and also silver medallist Poneke Challenge, Wgtn 2000.