University Kendo Championships 2006

The 10th annual British University Kendo Championships was held at Oxford University Sports Centre on Sunday 19th March. Over 60 competitors from 10 different universities turned out for an exciting day of fencing, despite many being in the thick of “exam crisis”!

The standard of the kyu grade competition was exceptionally high, especially considering many of the participants started their Kendo career at Uni and have therefore been training for less than 18 months. The worthy victor was Dipak Choudhary of UKKC.

In the Dan grade section we were treated to some super-fast shiai action from the Japanese competitors. The exception was Max Davies (Portsmouth) who battled through to the semis, but the final was a zen-Nippon affair between Kamegawa (UCL) and Kohira (Oxford).

The ladies’ final was a skilful match between Misato Makita (Gloucester) and Reiko Shimoda (Cambridge).

The grand finale was the team comp, which culminated in an all UCL dust-up. The “home-grown” A team put up a valiant fight but the mighty B team (Saito, Tosaka, Treen, Kamegawa, Matsuoka) won through. Gibbo was so pleased he nearly bought a round!

Thanks must go to all the referees and officials, but especially Ian Parker-Dodd who called upon his vast experience of running sporting events to make sure the whole day went smoothly.

A special mention goes to Weihao Yuen (OUKC President, 2005/6) who shouldered responsibility for putting on the show this year.

Results

Kyu Grade Championship (38 Entries) 1st Place: Choudhary - Kent
2nd Place: Tsoi - UCL
Joint 3rd Place: Murray - Edinburgh, Fulgoni - UCL

Dan Grade Championship (27 Entries) 1st Place: Kamegawa - UCL
2nd Place: Kohira - Oxford Brookes
Joint 3rd Place: Tosaka - UCL, Davies - Portsmouth

Ladies Championship (14 Entries) 1st Place: Ms Makita - Gloucester
2nd Place: Ms Shimoda - Cambridge
Joint 3rd Place: Ms Muranishi - Oxford Brookes, Ms Banba - Edinburgh

Team Championship (12 Entries) 1st Place: UCL B
2nd Place: UCL A
Joint 3rd Place: Imperial B, Oxford A

Fighting Spirit Award: Ms Li, Imperial College.

In addition to the trophies and medals, shinai were also awarded as prizes courtesy of Eiko-Budogu. Our thanks to Imai-San for her generous donation.