The 20th Annual Saskatoon Kendo Seminar was held February 27 – March 1 2009. We had another successful seminar this year. About 50 people enjoyed our annual weekend’s events. We were pleased to welcome many old friends and some new ones, particularly the new club from Thompson, Manitoba.
Thanks go out to our guest instructors, Hao-sensei from York and JCCC, and Kamata-sensei from Etobicoke. They had help from visiting instructors Harding-sensei from UBC and Tada-sensei from Regina.
Also thanks to our club volunteers who made this possible, Lance Wall, Jared Fedorchuk, Wes Myers, Kaiser Ali and Anand Elango.
I’m pleased to announce that everyone passed the grading. Altogether there were 9 ikkyu, 4 shodan, 1 nidan and 2 sandan candidates. This includes newly minted ikkyu Shan-shan Mei, Sean Carr and Amanda Carr and shodan Anand Elango and Wes Myers. We were also pleased to see former Saskatoon member Jeff Long pass nidan. Special congratulations to long-time dedicated members Jared Fedorchuk and Kyle Zeabin, who both passed sandan this year.
We had a good tournament this year. I want to especially congratulate our kids who were participating for the first time this year. Everyone tried very hard, and even though there were a few bruises in the end it was a successful first tournament for the kids.
Tournament results:
Youth (all SKC)
1. Nick
2. Youngnam
3. Ben
3. Eric
Beginner
1. Burns, EKC
2. Baldwin, SKC
3. Morrisey, EKC
3. MacKay, EKC
Kyu
1. Bryn Williams, EKC
2. Reuben Gabac, MKC
3. Perry, EKC
3. Lee, MKC
1-2 Dan
1. Shawn MacFadden, SKC
2. Jeff Fountain, Thompson
3. Kyle Zeabin, SKC
3. Jared Fedorchuk, SKC
Women
1. Reuche Gabac, MKC
2. Shelbe Li, SKC
3+ Dan
1. Neil Gendzwill, SKC
2. Koichi Tada, RKC
3. Takako Matisz, SKC
3. Lance Wall, SKC
Team
1. Calgary and Regina combined
2. Manitoba
3. Edmonton
3. Saskatoon
Fighting Spirit
Mike Wagner, RKC