AKC 2010 wrap-up

What a great weekend for Australian Kendo! As most of you know, last weekend (Easter weekend) the 35th Australian Kendo Championships (AKC) were held here in Melbourne at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (MSAC).

The AKC is an annual event with kendoka from all over Australia representing and competing for their respective states. Events include: Individual events, team events, Kata events as well as seminars and gradings. Saturday was the individual events with the team events on Sunday.

Australia’s best Kendo was on display with some fantastic matches being played throughout the days, including a 17 minute match during the semi finals in the Open Teams event and some drama in the finals with Kevin Chin (VIC) retiring due to injury. To top it all of, Victoria had it’s best result in a long time! The results below:

Open Individuals -
1st – B. Smith (VIC)
2nd – Y. Miyamoto (VIC)
3rd – A. Tilbury (WA) & W. Yoo (WA)

Women Open Indivuals -
1st – K. Sylvester (VIC)
2nd – C. Kobayashi (VIC)
3rd – D. Chun (NSW) & V. Yung (NSW)

Kyu Individuals -
1st – B. Yehuda (WA)
2nd – J. Tang (ACT)
3rd – S. Tang (NSW) & T. Reeve (VIC)

Women Kyu Individuals -
1st – S. Song (NSW)
2nd – M. Fenn (WA)
3rd – J. Feng (NSW) & K. McDonald (NSW)

Veterans Individuals -
1st – T. Nishimoto (NSW)
2nd – N. Tamura (QLD)
3rd – Y. Sano (NSW) & B. Brestovac (WA)

Open Teams -
1st – Victoria
2nd – New South Wales

Womens Teams -
1st – Victoria
2nd – New South Wales

Kyu Teams -
1st – Victoria
2nd – New South Wales

Kata Pairs -
1st – Victoria
2nd – Queensland

Thanks to all the kendoka for really making it an AKC to remember and especially to all the volunteers – without you guys, events such as these would just not be! Besides Melbourne Budokai (MBK) who were the main organisers of the event, Monash University Kendo Club had the most number of volunteers – that’s a great effort guys and you should be proud! I know I am

Check out our photos from the event at the photo gallery, and also some videos posted by Stan Corrigan (MBK) on YouTube.

Photos -
http://www.monashunikendoclub.org/photo-gallery/

YouTube videos -
http://www.youtube.com/user/AKC2010Melbourne
http://www.youtube.com/user/OzKenkichi

Hope you all had a good time there! Thanks again for all your efforts, and see you at training!