Whitehorse Daily Star

Judokas gain valuable experience at Lethbridge matches

Five judo athletes recently participated in the 2010 Junior Nationals in Lethbridge.

By Freelancer on July 8, 2010

Five judo athletes recently participated in the 2010 Junior Nationals in Lethbridge.

Coach Aaron Jensen accompanied Lara Bellon, 15, Camila Gaw, 14, Erik Vasseur, 13, and Andrew Jensen, 12. He submitted the following report about the Yukon athlete's performance.

– – –

Everyone did their best by getting here and making their weights.

On Friday, Lara fought in U-17 F-70 kg with a division of 10 competitors.

Her first fight against B.C.'s Kirsti Roots, an ikkyu (brown belt), had Lara quite nervous. Having never fought a brown belt before was a challenge mentally, and she was dominated into osaewaza (pinning or hold down techniques) for ippon (full point).

After the first fight, Lara was able to settle down and come out against her second opponent with much more confidence. She came out with spirit and countered her opponent twice, once for yuko (small point), the second for ippon.

Lara's third fight was against blue belt Haley Walz from Saskatchewan. The match went about one minute 30 seconds before Lara was thrown with a nicely executed seoitoshi (a shoulder throw) for ippon.

Kirsti Roots went on to win gold and Haley Walz bronze in this category.

Saturday was a bit more hectic with three athletes competing, on two of four mats luckily.

Eric, fighting in U-15 M-55 kg, which included 15 competitors, was the third match on mat A vs Mark Wulczynski of Ontario, a sankyu (green belt). Again, the first fight jitters played a large part in the swing of this fight, yet Erik did go into the match one minute 40 seconds before having his uchimata (a leg throw) entry countered for ippon.

In Eric's second match, vs B.C.'s Brandon Slooyer, an ikkyu, he was again able to attain his grip and attack, this time with his drop seoinage (a shoulder throw). Unfortunately he was blocked and his opponent was able to take the fight into osaewaza, for ippon.

Camila, fighting in the U-15 F-48 kg with 11 competitors was the fifth match on mat B vs B.C.'s Juliane Romero, a sankyu (green belt). Once again the nerves won over Camila and she was muscled to the mat (without score) to (hold down techniques) until ippon.

Camila's second match vs an Ontario nikyu (blue belt), was over quite quick with an ippon seoitoshi by the Ontario fighter.

Andrew competed in the U-15 M-42 kg. He had a decent draw of the seven entries in his category being put into a pool system of three, meaning that one win would advance him.

His first fight against Ontario's Cameron Burgess, a nikyu, was over in seconds as Andrew was caught by the old grip and go maneuver.

Andrew's second match versus Quebec's Samuel Rousseau, an ikkyu went better, lasting 45 seconds.

Andrew was thrown first for yuko, then a second time for ippon.

Quebec's Rousseau ended up winning gold, while Ontario's Burgess won bronze in the division.

All competitors learned an invaluable lesson of how inexperience and nerves play a major part of these events.

I hope we can take this experience to work towards next year's competitions. Everyone commented they wished they could have another fight.

The athletes then took in the U-20 divisions before preparing the four day training camp that began on Monday.

Submitted by Team Yukon head coach, Aaron Jensen.

Comments (1)

Up 0 Down 0

Joe Prentice on Jul 8, 2010 at 9:25 pm

Way to go Yukon. You will gain more confidence and experience as you go on. Just keep working and practicing. Now you have this experience behind you. Look a head and forward for your next experience.

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