46th Australian Kendo Championship 2024 Results!

During Easter weekend, our club sent 14 members to compete at the 46th Australian Kendo Championship (AKC) in Sydney!

Dan Members

• Kelvin Tran
• Jordan Saito-Patch
• Alan Kishikawa
• Kelly Kishikawa
• Iris Somera
• Samantha Zhong
• Gratia Nguyen

Kyu Members

• Kyte Gurner
• Andrew Yang
• Felix Lee
• Sohrab Khaleghi Rad
• James Hu
• Shannon Tong
• Yasaman Motazedi

At AKC these club members represented the state of NSW in both individual and team competitions. NSW was one of the strongest states in Australia this year winning 6 of the 8 competitions!

Club Member Results

Dan Men Individuals

2nd Place – Alan Kishikawa

3rd Place – Jordan Saito-Patch

Dan Womens Individuals

2nd Place – Kelly Kishikawa

3rd Place – Iris Somera

Dan Mens Team

1st Place – NSW (Featuring Jordan Saito-Patch, Alan Kishikawa and Kelvin Tran)

Dan Womens Team

3rd Place – NSW (Featuring Shannon Tong, Kelly Kishikawa, Iris Somera and Gratia Nguyen)

Kyu Men Teams

1st Place – NSW (Featuring Andrew Yang and Kyte Gurner)

Kyu Womens Teams

1st Place – NSW

Fighting Spirit Award

Jordan Saito-Patch

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Kelly And Alan’s Individual Run

What can we say about the Kishikawa siblings other than they’re simply ‘built different’. Don’t let their young appearance deceive you, they’ve been honing their kendo skills for years!

 

 

After clearing the group stage and quarter finals, Kelly faced fellow club, NSW and WKC teammate Iris in the semi-finals, defeating Iris with a single men ippon. In the finals, Kelly went up with fellow NSW and WKC teammate D. Chun. Unfortunately, Kelly would lose a kote ippon early into the match and, unable to find a way back in, lost at the end of regular time. Nonetheless 2nd place is an amazing achievement!

 

 

 

 

Alan faced some challenges straightaway, facing the WKC captain and teammate in the group stage. Not to worry though, as Alan would clear the group stage without dropping a point! After some close battles in the knockout stages, Alan faced Yoonsu Kim Sensei in a repeat of the 2023 Australian Kendo Championship! Alan would lose the first point to a kote-men (a double strike, where a person first strikes the opponents kote (wrist) before striking their men (head)). However, Alan would bring it back to level with a kote strike. Unfortunately, Alan would fall short as he would lose to a men strike! You’ll get him next time Alan!

 

 

NSW Kyu Men’s Team

The NSW kyu men’s team featured our fellow members Andrew Yang in Jihou (2nd position) and Kyte Gurner in Fukushou (4th position) in the team of five. After clearing the group stage, NSW faced rival state Victoria in the finals.

Andrew was cautious but brimming to go. After witnessing Victoria States preference to kote strikes, Andrew decided to pull an Uno reversal on Victoria with a kote-nuki-men. As the opponent attempted to strike kote, Andrew pulled his kote away just enough to dodge the strike before countering with a powerful men strike to win the Jihou match and increase NSW lead to 2-0 in the finals!

 

 

 

 

 

Kyte entered the match as the fourth position in the team with NSW already up 2-1. If NSW were to win this match then they would win the finals. So Kyte did what he did best and hit the opponents men twice to secure the win for NSW’s Kyu Men’s team!

 

 

NSW Dan Men’s Team

The NSW Dan Men’s team contained fellow club members Jordan in Senpo (1st position), Alan in Chukken (3rd Position) and Kelvin in Taisho (5th position). Like the Kyu men’s team, NSW faced rivals Victoria in the final.

 

Jordan was first up facing a tough match up against an Australian WKC member. Showing energy and initiative, Jordan kept pace with his opponent. However, his opponent would get the first ippon with a lightning quick gyaku-do (striking the opposing persons left side stomach). Undeterred, Jordan increased the energy in an attempt to chase the point. However, chasing points can sometimes open one up, and unfortunately, Jordan failed to recover from the lost point. Not to worry, he has the backup of the rest of the team!

 

 

 

With the NSW’s Tony Liu levelling the team score 1-1, the Chukken match saw Alan face off against against a fellow WKC teammate. With everything to play for, the Chukken match was tense to say the least! Victoria would draw first ippon with a lightning quick kote. However, Alan would answer back with a gyaku-do ippon right after attempting a hiki-do! In an intense back and forth, which saw both kendokas see 1 flag raise, Alan would seal the match with his own uno reversal winning with men-kaeshi-men (blocking a men strike and then quickly countering with your own men strike) to take the NSW team to 2-1!

 

 

 

NSW’s would secure a 3-1 lead and secure victory for NSW but all matches must still be played and with just as much energy and intensity! The final Taisho match saw Kelvin face off against fellow WKC teammate and captain Trent Reeve.  While no crazy waza was seen, neither kendoka was willing to budge with both parties well aware of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. The match would end in a draw, with NSW securing 1st place in the Dan Men’s Team!

 

 

 

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More Photos!