Day V: Good Fight Tomorrow!!!

Going into the final day of contest (that included the open age and teams fights) the kiwi contingent was severely depleted in number. Greg didn’t make the first day of contest; his shoulder had blown-out before even taking the mat. Wayne lost a ligament in his wrist during his fight on Saturday rendering him dis-functional for the rest of the trip. Sensei Rick sustained a heavy leg injury (and we never stopped hearing about it). And the might and stealth of alcohol claimed another. The sum of these heavy losses bordered on unsustainable, particularly when you consider how few were on the team! Nonetheless, we persevered...and almost thrived...due in large measure to the strength of the Tauranga contingent.



The day was hard fought. I will try and post the videos when Sensei Rick gets back with his camera. Special mention goes to Richard. He was the only player under 50 to win a fight (admittedly he got smoked in the next one, but he did get ONE!)

[Here Simon is enjoying the company of the guy who smashed him]


Special mention was also earned by Kahn – the first green belt in the history of Judo to fight in an All Japan Masters Contest (albeit concealed beneath a brown belt for the sake of diplomacy – but even this was bad in the company of san dan’s and above). He blazed, taking his opponent to the last seconds. The other special mention goes to Carl "the manager" from Tauranga. Thanks Carl, your organizational ability, albeit slightly impaired on the second day, made it! (More will be said about Carl and his incredible role in getting us all there soon!)

Anyway, back to the story. We lost the teams contest convincingly. We lined up, each team had to front a player in each age category: 30-34, 35-39, 40-44 etc...all the way up to Pat. The anomaly was Andrew who got to fight in place of the injured Wayne. The other anomaly was that Khan was poached by a Japanese team. The reasons behind this remain a mystery. Perhaps he was perceived as a threat based on how well he fought earlier. Maybe it had something to do with racial purity (some of the Japanese are funny this way). Or perhaps it was simply because the large Samurai in the team wanted to make Khan his boy friend. Who knows? Regardless of reason(s) it will be recorded as a moment of international diplomacy and friendship in the highest degree.
Next: Day V: Morioka hot springs