Judo Yukon scores three gold medals at Anchorage tournament

Whitehorse’s judo clubs have been busy this month, with tournaments at home and Outside.

Whitehorse’s judo clubs have been busy this month, with tournaments at home and Outside.

Erik and Dane Vasseur spent this past weekend at the All Star Snow Classic tournament in Anchorage, where they faced each other in a match.

The following is a letter submitted by the Vasseurs:

We had an amazing experience at Anchorage.

Besides near perfect driving conditions we were very impressed with the Alaskans’ great sportsmanship and love of judo.

We were also completely overwhelmed by the warm welcome given by every judoka in Anchorage.

Dane enjoyed a mix of opponents starting with similar weight juniors except for his son Erik who didn’t let the 50-pound difference intimidate him.

Erik won his first match because Dane made the mistake of reaching for a leg scoop and was disqualified.

For the second father/son match, Erik executed a great throw with enough torque to slam his dad into the mat.

Dane faced two senior brown belts and got thrown by one, but took the other down to a hold down for ippon.

Both Dane and Erik fought a nationally ranked 17-year-old which proved to be a real education in great technical judo.

Erik fought not only in a senior division but also had three fights in a 13-15 year-old division.

He defended against chokes and used throws and hold downs to take first place.

Dane fought two judokas with lower belts in judo but trained in Jujitsu. He won all of his matches.

Two of his matches were full point throws and one win was by holding his opponent down for the full 25 seconds. (He fought one of his opponents twice)

At the end of the tournament Judo Yukon got three golds, one silver and two bronze.

We felt very welcome there and all of the Alaskan judokas displayed great sportsmanship.

Holy Family Judo Club held its first shiai (tournament) in the Holy Family Elementary School gymnasium on Jan. 30.

Members of the Shiroumakai (SHK), Emilie Tremblay (EET), Golden Horn (GHS), and Holy Family (HFS) judo clubs (all clubs are from the Whitehorse area) competed against each other.

Holy Family Invitational Judo Tournament results:

Girls U-10 ne waza (ground techniques)
1. Fionnuala Marion - GHS
2. Paige Poelman - HFS
3. Layla Parker - EET
3. Maria Vasseur - EET

Boys U-10 ne waza (ground techniques)
1. Jadon Leenders - HFS
2. Wesley Vangel - GHS
3. Hugo Burgess - GHS
3. Nisha Dempsey - GHS

Mixed girls/boys U-12
1. Tristan McCallum - SHK
2. Kaelin Parker - EET

Boys U-13
1. Jadon Leenders - HFS
2. Andrew Jensen - SHK
3. Tristan McCallum - SHK

Boys U-15
1. Travis McCallum - SHK
2. Andrew Jensen - SHK
3. Tristan McCallum - SHK.