The Hanrimwon Kumdo competition is a state-wide event that brings along Kendo and Kumdo players from all around NSW. The tournament was held on the 11th of May and as usual our club put in as many competitors as possible.
The day started off with the Open teams tournament, with lots of heated matches, from the numerous university clubs and dojos within the region. The turnout was great and many of our beginner members came to watch and cheer on our members.
It was our club’s top-team who made it to the finals, closely losing out on the gold medal to the UTS Kendo Club, but displayed great Kendo strength. The team consisted of (in picture below, from left to right) Adam Corbett, Rocky Yan, Daichi Fujisawa, Ervin Peng and Walter Chung (replaced by Kim Avina). Congratulations everyone!
The day continued with the individual tournaments. It was good to see some of our new bogu players challenging the competitions, unfortuantely did not make it through to the mens kyu individual finals – better luck next time! Our club shined in the women’s kyu tournament with the finals being between our two girls Julie Tran and Kim Avina, the long rivals of our female players. It was Kim Avina however who managed to score the last deciding point in a simple and clean game. Congratulations on Kim on receiving her first state-level gold medal! The effort was closely followed by Julie Feng (of our club) who fought courageously in the dan womens individuals, closely missing on first place to Jenny Song of DHMDK, and securing a silver medal for our club.
(Left: Kim Avina, 1st Womens Kyu individials) (Right: Julie Feng, 2nd Womens Dan individuals)
The day was not over yet, with the mens Dan individual event being the last event. Though many of our dan members competed for the gold, their attempts were shadowed by Daichi Fujisawa’s (USYD) playing. Daichi made it to the finals without losing a point and secured the big first place for our club, whilst displaying excellent Kendo Spirit. Congratulations Daichi you have made us so proud!
As the day came to an end it was clear that our club had a fantastic day. There were many victories and losses, perhaps more victories for us as a club this time, but that is never our ultimate goal. We hope that all players that represented our club enjoyed the day, and can bring back new experiences to our regular training. An extra shout-outs goes to Julie Tran for receiving the prestigious fighting spirit award for the competition. A small focus article by Sydney University Sports and Fitness can be found here.
Let’s keep up the excellent work everyone! Look forward to seeing you back at training!
