Hey everyone!
The Melbourne University Takiai 2010 was held over this past weekend with a total of 50 competitors ranging from 6th Kyu through to 2nd Dan. There were 3 divisions – Up to 4th Kyu, 3rd – 1st Kyu, and 1st – 2nd Dan, with the winner and runner-up from each division moving up into the next division. The competitors from Monash were: Ophelia, Mony, Nicholas. Absentees were Paul and Ryo.
It was a knock out style taikai so a competitor was out of the competition as soon as they lost a match. Because of this, the competition went by pretty fast and fairly smoothly.
Nicholas Chan was in the first division, winning his matches convincingly and pretty fast too, all the way up until the finals where he was beaten by Viet Lun Le (MBK). It was a tough match, made a bit tougher for Nick who had to play his semi-final match and the final match back to back with no rest in between. Great effort Nick!
I was in the next division winning my first 2 matches at encho (overtime). My 2nd match against Le (MBK) was one to remember – he dropped his shinai twice resulting in 2 hansoku (penalty) and rewarding me 1 point – enough to win at encho. I got up to the semi finals and eventually lost to Richard Loi (UMKC) who went on to win that division. I got a fighting spirit award for my efforts too – my first one!
Ophelia was in the Dan division and was playing against a hard nut, H Sui (). She put up a tough fight but was eventually overcome and was knocked out in the first round.
We saw some great Kendo that day, with a great finals match in the Dan division played between Stan Corrigan (MBK) and Tony Corrigan (MBK) with Stan coming out on top 1-0.
I’ll put up some photos from the day soon. Thanks to the Monash competitors for competing, especially those still doing exams! Thanks to the spectators – Melissa and Jessica for coming to support us! The Melbourne University Taikai is held every year, so the juniors of 2010, you’ll be eligible to play next year 
Hopefully we can send more people to this taikai next year!
Here are the results of the Taikiai -
Division: Up to 4th Kyu -
1st – Viet Lun Le (MBK)
2nd – Nicholas Chan (MON)
3rd – Aaron Siah (MBK), Daniel Wachtel (MBK)
Division: 3rd – 1st Kyu -
1st – Richard Loi (UMKC)
2nd – Ryoichi Saito (MBK)
3rd – Mony Sak (MON), Alvin Ng (UMKC)
Division: 1st – 2nd Dan -
1st – Stan Corrigan (MBK)
2nd – Tony Corrigan (MBK)
3rd – Rueben Barnett (MBK), Tony Shearer (UMKC)
Fighting Spirit Awards -
Mony Sak (MON), David Tay (UMKC), Sara Hwang (UMKC), Vi Dinh (UMKC)
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