Sainokuni East Friendship Competition

The 6th Sainokuni East Friendship Competition

Erica here!

As Louise mentioned, we participated in the Tobu Taikai last week and were both surprised. Kumite is definitely not my favorite and after the Sugito tournament (where I won a gold medal in kata) Arakawa Sensei insisted that I needed more kumite practice. So practice we did, but it did not raise my confidence very much.

In my division at the Tobu Taikai, there were 5 other girls with kyu (non dan) rankings. They were all from the same university club and I was nervous and a bit disheartened (my previous kata match did not go as I planned). But for kumite we had an odd number of people in our division and I was the lucky one to be given the bi into the next round. So my first match was a semi-final one. I went in hoping for the best and surprisingly I won the match advancing me into the finals! There I hoped for the best again and at first I was in the lead, but she started catching up! I scored another point and the match was over. Much to everyone's surprise, I won gold in kumite.

Gold?.....in kumite??

At the end of the competition, when we were all supposed to line up with our clubs and bow out, everyone was running around like crazy. I looked around wondering what was going on when I realized people were going up to the bleachers to get their programmes. So of course I went and grabbed mine and discovered a number on the back of it. The reason for it was that there was going to be a draw!! The prizes included a digital picture frame, something that looked like a mini-heater (I'm not sure because I couldn't really see) and a brand new bicycle!! That's what all the kids were excited about. It was a very nice way to end the day =)

PRIZES!! It's so new and shiny!!