Tournament Championships

The Ocean State Grand Nationals was held on April 3-5 in Warwick, Rhode Island. It turned out to be a huge international tournament as well as a very well-supported tournament by the NASKA tournament circuit and the KRANE circuit. Don Rodrigues, the promoter of OSGN, has been very successful in all these past years hosting the OSGN. Also, since this tournament is KRANE sanctioned, it really gave a chance for Don Rodrigues' students as well as KRANE competitors to step up and face the top seeded competitors on NASKA and challenge their skills. But the greatest thing about this year's tournament was that many Europeans came to dominate the fighting divisions in which Americans usually compete only against each other.

The Friday night elimination started off with heated competition. In the youth categories, Sammy Smith, Mackensi Emory, Amanda Chen, Dayna Huor, Tyler Weaver, Cole Eckert, Donovan Sheehan and many other NASKA veterans as well as new faces faced against each other in their divisions, determined to advance to the grand champion runoffs which would be held the next day on Saturday in the afternoon. Dayna Huor unexpectedly defeated Mackensi Emory in 3 of the 4 divisions but the prodigy fought back by winning creative weapons. Cole Eckert, Amanda Chen, Sammy Smith, Becca Ross, and Audrey Donihoo were victors in the forms and weapons divisions while Donovan Sheehan, Austin Crain, Matt Jones, and Cole Eckert were victors in their divisions as well. Marc Canonizado proved his perfection was true as he won his musical and extreme forms categories. On top of that, he impressed the audience and his competition as he defeated his JPM teammate Kalman Csoka in musical weapons. Canonizado came very close to ending a good night with all victories, but unfortunately dropped his kamas, which allowed Josh Kahan to come out on the top. Team 100 Percent was the winner of the team demo competition while Team Paul Mitchell's Marc Canonizado and Caitlin Dechelle won the team synchronized forms division.

The Europeans made a good first impression by winning the men's team fighting and overcoming the obstacles of the top NASKA fighters including Team Wasaru, Team Paul Mitchell, and Team Straight Up. Top Team Europe really climbed their way up to victory as they defeated Team Team Paul Mitchell's fighters which were Greg Betlach, Alex Lane and Elias Lemon, Team Wasuru's Niko Negron, Jason Grenier, and Ross Levine. JPM's match came down to a score of 12-8 and Team Wasuru's match came down to a respectable score of 12-11. So in the end, Top Team Europe ended up being the victorious winners of men's team fighting.

The next morning Kalman Csoka decided to take his revenge by winning the traditional weapons division. Unexpectedly in creative weapons, Csoka dropped his sword. His competition including Ross Levine, Will Cornell, and Jarett Leiker took this oppurtunity to become the winner of that division. An unfortunate slip from Levine cost his first place position. Are you wondering who won? Well, suprisingly in the end, Nick Schneider put down a very clean performance which earned him his first place.

Dayna Huor swept her competition by winning both the creative/extreme forms division and the traditional forms division in her runoffs, which gave her a spot in the 13 and under forms grand championship along with Tyler Weaver and Cole Eckert. Tyrei Brown and Becca Ross both tricked their way to the finals with their extreme forms while Olivia Wicker and Lawrence Collymore punched their way to the finals as well. Mackensi Emory found her spot in the finals as well as Sammy Smith and Jackson Rudolph. Jennifer Espina and Caitlin Dechelle worked their way to compete in the women's forms competition while Will Cornell, Patrick Underwood, Josh Kahan and Marc Canonizado earned their spots in the men's grand championship. Marisa Mayer and Nicole Pelland dominated in the women's fighting divisions and runoffs and would have to have a match with each other at the night show for the women's sparring grands. Damain Rodriguez, Harald Schmidt, El-Java Abdul-Qadir and Ross Levine were the top 4 fighters to compete for the men's sparring grands.

For the opening demo, Team 100 Percent put 100 percent into their opening performance as winners of the demo team competition the night before. After that was the 13 and under forms overall grand championships. Tyler Weaver, the 1st competitor of the evening, wowed the crowd as he flipped and punched with great enthusiasm. Dayna Huor, feeling a little bit of pressure from Weaver's performance, gave it her all as she showed her great intensity as well as her clean acrobatic skills. Cole Eckert was last up performing his hardstyle traditional form, ending with a strong yell. After the scores, it was Dayna Huor who came out on top with a score of 49.95, giving her the first overall grand championship title of the evening.

Next up was the 14-17 forms grand championship with Tyrei Brown, Olivia Wicker, Becca Ross and Lawrence Collymore as the competitors. Becca Ross kicked off the division with her amazing tricks that put the audience in awe. Lawrence Collymore, though it was his first time on stage, gave it his all in his traditional form and hoped for the best. Olivia Wicker followed him with yet another clean and strong traditional form. Tyrei Brown, last up, gave a stunning performance with his high flying acrobatics and fast punches. In the end, Tyrei Brown got well-deserved scores and won his division.

After that came the women's sparring grand championship. Nicole Pelland faced Marissa Mayer who were both from Rhode Island and both eager to win the title. After giving it all she had with head shot kicks and blitzes, Mayer ended up defeating Pelland with a score of 10 to 6 which then made Mayer undefeated in NASKA sparring for the year with her second title of the year.

The next heated competition was the 13 and under weapons grand championships. Mackensi Emory was the first competitor to go up. Emory started off with a fast, stunning form but ended up dropping her kamas. She still showed that she had great showmanship by finishing her kama form. Sammy Smith and Jackson Rudolph both performed their traditional bo forms with great effort and strength. Sammy Smith victoriously won the title over Rudolph and Emory.

Team Europe was once again set up for a match against Team USA. Team Europe included Harald Schmidt, Drew Neal, Robbie Hughes, and Zvonko Gribl while Team USA consisted of Greg Betlach, Ross Levine, Joey Greenhalgh, and Elias Lemon. The very first match was between Drew Neal and Greg Betlach which ended up with a score of 5 to 2, putting USA in the lead. Next up was Joey Greenhalgh and Robbi Hughes, who stayed on their feet the whole time. But Greenhalgh didn't let the USA's lead slip up when he added the score to be 9 to 4, keeping USA in it's position. Ross Levine and Harald Schmidt were next up on the battlefield. With Levine's good strategy, he also kept USA's lead and put the score to 16 to 10, keeping USA in the lead. The final match was Elias Lemon and Zvonko Gribl. A lot of pressure was on Gribl's shoulders as he was the one responsible for putting Europe ahead of USA. But, in the end, Europe could not claim their victory, giving Team USA the title instead. But, the Europeans still had hope for Germany's Harald Schmidt for the men's sparring grand championship.

Going back to the weapons competition where Becca Ross, Austin Crain and Cory Lutkus were the competitors for the 14 to 17 weapons grand championship. Lutkus lashed out a very strong traditional bo form with a suprise of adding music. Unfortunately, Lutkus' bo slipped out of his hand in the middle of his form, putting him out of contention. Becca Ross was the following competitor, hoping not to make an unfortunate mistake also. She performed a flawless fast and powerful creative bo form. Up last was the small but dynamic Austin Crain who chopped and tricked his way to the end of his form, finishing with a strong yell. In the battle between the bo and kamas, the bo was the winner, who was Becca Ross who won with an outstanding performance.

The women's forms grand championship came down to two tough competitors: Caitlin Dechelle and Jennifer Espina. Espina showed her intensity and strength in her traditional Japanese form, which made Dechelle a little more determined. Dechelle was off to a very good start, but, with an unfortunate slip and fall on her head, the trophy was knocked off of her hands, making Espina the winner.

In the men's sparring grand championship, it came down the Harald Schmidt and Damian Rodriguez. At first, Schmidt started off with a whacking roundhouse kick to Rodriguez's head, giving him two points, which made Rodriguez a little more cautious and strategic. But, after a little while, even good strategy wasn't good enough to dodge Schmidt's speed and long legs. The match ended with a score of 8 to 2, allowing Schmidt to advance to the finals. The next match was Ross Levine and El-Java Abdul Qadir. Levine was given the victory which put him in the final match against Schmidt.

The adult weapons grand championship included Caitlin Dechelle, Nick Schneider, Marc Canonizado, and Kalman Csoka. In the end, Marc Canonizado won over Csoka and Schneider, who both unfortunately dropped, and Dechelle.

The men's forms grand championship was the last forms division of the night. Will Cornell started off with a clean traditional form. Patrick Underwood was second with an extreme form. Josh Kahan was confident his fancy tricks and fast punches could top off Underwood's performance as he did his musical form. Marc Canonizado performed yet another perfect musical form. And, once again, Canonizado grabbed the title.

The men's sparring finals made people bite their nails and sit on the very edge of their seats. The match was between Ross Levine and Harald Schmidt. Levine was the defending champion while Schmidt was the newcomer. In the end, Schmidt became the new men's sparring overall grand champion and made his fellow Europeans proud.

Everyone was very satisfied with the nighttime show, but, were the defeated competitors? Some were'nt, some were. They will no doubt go home motivated to win at the next tournament. But, nothing could top off this year's 2009 Ocean State Grand Nationals.

This tournament, which is rated respectively NASKA ‘’AAAAA’’, WKA "AAAAA" & PSKL "AAAAA" is now considered as one of the most important in the world. The international reconnaissance of the tournament encourages the best athletes in the world to participate every year.

Being the most prestigious international martial arts championship event in Canada, the 29th Annual Quebec Open was held 24-25 April 2009 in Quebec City, in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is indisputably the most competitor-friendly tournament in many aspects. The judging is world class and is very fair for the reason that judges are well qualified black belt instructors who judge competitors without political inclination. This year's Quebec Open drawed competitors from 23 countries. The promoter of this event is Master Clermont Poulin, who was solemnly promoted to the rank of 10th degree black belt by the board of all the black belts instructors of Kempo Karate in Quebec. Mr. Poulin's instructor is the deceased Master Nick Cerio.This well-deserved rank was the rank which he has refused a few times in past offers. But based on his hard work and long experience of teaching kempo karate, the board and Mr. Poulin felt it was time to accept the rank.

Unsurpassed hospitality by the tournament promoter and his staff, they made the Quebec Open a tournament that people would love to come back to. Friday evening's competition began at 5:00 p.m. with heated and intense extreme and creative weapons divisions, followed by extreme and musical forms divisions in which the competitors were all very competitive. Men's team fighting and junior team fighting's competitors included top fighters from USA, Canada, Italy and other foreign countries. Team Canada for men's fighting advanced to the final fight. The next morning on Saturday, the competition became even more hectic as competitors in the forms divisions did their very best to advance to the grand championship runoffs. Individual fighting as well took place at the same time, creating even more competition as the tournament moved on.

The divisional grand championship in forms and weapons took place in the afternoon with even more harsh competition as the competitors all strived for their time to shine at the nighttime finals that would be held later that day.
The winners advanced to compete at the Overall Grand Championship Finals competition at the Night Time Show.

The Finals
The famous Night Time Finals and Show of 2009 Quebec Open took place on Saturday night, starting at 7PM. It opened with the ceremony of formal promotion of master Clermont Poulin, followed by an extravagant dance performance of the Toupie Dancers of Quebec, coached and choreographed by Mr. Poulin's talented daughter. The Night Time Finals forms competitions started off with the youth black belt boys and girls 13 years and under weapons finals, with Ryan Wells, Jackson Rudolph, Dayna Huor and Sammy Smith as the four competitors. First came Ryan Wells with a clean and solid traditional bo form. Second came Jackson Rudolph with an exciting and exuberant musical weapons form. Third came Dayna Huor with another intense and strong traditional bo form, putting pressure on the last competitor, Sammy Smith. Sammy Smith started with a clean, fast, and powerful musical weapons form with a lot to impress with, but, unfortunately ended up dropping her nunchuck, putting her out of contention. So, after tough competition between the four talented competitors, the final winner of the overall grand championship title was Dayna Huor of Davenport, IA from the U.S. representing team AKA.

Next up was the 14-17 weapons competition with Cory Lutkus of Team Amerikick kicking off the competition with an amazing, flawless creative bo form with a ton of energy and flash, filling the audience with excitement. Since his form was so good, the judges decided to give him the title over Micayla Johnson's extreme kama form and Olivia Wicker's traditional bo form.

Following that was the adult weapons grand championship. This time there was even more intensity between the competitors who were Marc Canonizado, Kalman Csoka, Ross Levine, and Caitlin Dechelle. Marc Canonizado was the first competitor up and was able to pull off a pretty solid extreme sword form. Second was Kalman Csoka, representing Team Paul Mitchell, who suprised the Canadian audience with his double sword form, pulling ooh's and ah's from the audience's mouths. Kalman Csoka's form was so impressive that, in fact, he won over the rest of the competitors as expected from the audience.

Team synchronized forms was a friendly USA vs. Canada competition. In the end, Team Paul Mitchell of USA with Caitlin Dechelle and Marc Canonizado ended up winning the title, defeating Canada. But the Canadians got their revenge with Andrew Cabilan of Team Prorank winning the 30 and over men's forms competition with his hardstyle traditional form. But, the US got back one more with Drew Bisbee winning the 30 and over weapons grands.

For the 13 and under forms overall grand championship competition, Dayna Huor stood at the top once more with an amazing musical extreme form winning over Jackson Rudolph's traditional form and Andrew Franklin's musical extreme form. This was the second title she won for the Finals.

Tyrei Brown jump-started the 14-17 forms grands with a flawless extreme form which put a little pressure on Jessica Goldman, his teammate on Team 100 Percent Performance. Even though it was Goldman's first experience being on stage, she performed her extreme form like she had been on stage many times before. Unfortunately she stumbled on her multiple kicks at the end of her form, knocking her 100 percent performance down a notch. Following her were two talented traditionalists, Mickey Facchinello of Team AKA and Lawrence Collymore. Colleymore barely knocked the trophy off of Facchinello's hands, winning the title.

Caitlin Dechelle of Team Paul Mitchell won the women's forms overall grands with her legendary musical form, defeating Jennifer Espina and Stephanie Woolfolk. Jarret Leiker shocked everyone once again, adding music to his traditional Taekwondo form called Gae-Baek. Stephen Renney came up next with a clean nice form. Scott Wu performed his Japanese traditional form and added a little spice here and there to impress the judges even more. But, it was Marc Canonizado who took home the trophy, determined not to go home with nothing.

Junior Team fighting took a dramatic turn with Quebec and Montreal competing against each other. In the end it came down to the final fight between Alexandre Baril and Luke Dufour. It came down to a tie in regulation time which forced an overtime. The final victorious point was scored by Montreal who won by a very slim point.

In the US vs. Canada team fight, local favorites David Bossinotte, Dany Griffith and Stephan Dube fought against Dennis Molloy, Micheal Simmons, and Chris Rappold. This was another very close and intense match but in the end, Molloy and Rappold took the opportunity of Canada's mistakes to get the lead. USA ended up winning victoriously over the Canadians, giving Americans one more thing to be proud of from this year's Quebec Open.

After the finals, there was even more fun to experience at the after party in the Club Mundial. Even after the amazing and well-organized tournament and night show, Clermont Poulin was still able to manage to create an awesome and entertaining party. All of the people who went to the Quebec Open are sure to have created unforgotten memories, especially the promoter and his staff's hospitality and friendliness.