All American Open Karate Championships 2008

The International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan Presents

The 2008 All American Open Karate Championships

Saturday, September 20, 2008 - New York City

OFFICIAL RESULTS

MEN’S OPEN KUMITE

1^ST     ZAHARI DAMYANOV – BULGARIA

2^ND     SERGIO DA COSTA – BRAZIL

3^RD     EDUARDO TANAKA – BRAZIL

4^TH     ANDERSON DA SILVA – BRAZIL

5^th      Kryszytof Habraszka – Poland

6^th      Alejandro Navarro – Spain

7^th      Pablo Estensoro – Spain

8^th      Slawomir Was – USA

WOMEN’S LIGHTWEIGHT KUMITE

1^ST     EWA PAWLIKOVSKA – POLAND

2^nd      Elena Gulko – Russia

3^rd      Naoko Fukui – Japan

4^th      Stanislava Boycheva – Bulgaria

WOMEN’S MIDDLEWEIGHT KUMITE

1^ST     JULIE LAMARRE – CANADA

2^nd      Dobroslawa Solttysik – Poland

3^rd      Eugenia Lukyanenko – Russia

4^th      Ekaterina Zelenko – Russia

WOMEN’S HEAVYWEIGHT KUMITE

1^ST     DANAILA CHERNEVA – BULGARIA

2^nd      Anna Kaczynska – Poland

3^rd      Elena Kozlova – Russia

4^th      Jessica Buteau – Canada

YOKOZUNA CHAMPION – JULIE LAMARRE

OPEN KATA

1^ST     GERGANA KOSTOVA – BULGARIA

2^nd      Isabella Sularz – Poland

3^rd      Aleksandra Radziewicz – Poland (tie)

3^rd      Raluca Jianu – Romania (tie)

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SENIOR MEN OPEN – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       GERRIE HOOGEVEEN – HOLLAND

2^nd       Jacek Synoradzki – Poland

3^rd        Michal Trasiewicz – Poland

4^th        Grzegorz Stochmal – Poland

JUNIOR BOYS 16-17YRS – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       AKEKHOV ARTEM – RUSSIA

2^nd       Subbotkin Nikita – Russia

3^rd        Stanimir Dinev – Bulgaria

4^th        Jeremie Massicotte – Canada

JUNIOR BOYS 14-15YRS – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       SHUN SUGAWARA – USA

2^nd       Trevor Tamura – USA

3^rd        Jack Rendler – USA

4^th        Aleksandar Papanchev – Bulgaria

JUNIOR GIRLS 14-15YRS – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       NADA BOUMEFTAH – CANADA

2^nd       Marta Lubos – Poland

3^rd        Violetta Sergeeva – Russia

4th       Aleksandra Zajkowska – Poland

JUNIOR BOYS 12-13YRS – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       LIKA PETKOVIC – SERBIA

2^nd       Simon Deguire – Canada

3^rd        Zlatko Petrov – Bulgaria

4^th        Guillaume Desfosses – Canada

JUNIOR GIRLS 12-13YRS – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       ANNA MIYAJIMA – JAPAN

2^nd       Elizabeth Kuc – USA

3^rd        Courtney Wong – USA

JUNIOR BOYS 10-11YRS – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       RYO SUGAWARA – USA

2^nd       Anton Ismailov – Russia

3^rd        Usynin Timofey – Russia

4^th        Nikita Shchedrin – Russia

JUNIOR BOYS 8-9YRS – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       CHRISTIAN BUFFALOE – USA

2^nd       Soichiro Sasaki – USA

3^rd        Naoki Wakayama – USA

4^th        Tomoaki Nakayama – USA

JUNIOR BOYS 6-7YRS – SEMI-CONTACT KUMITE

1^ST       GABRIEL SAVARD – CANADA

2^nd       Yasuhito Suda – USA

JUNIOR INTERMEDIATE KATA

1^ST       ANTON ISMAILOV – RUSSIA – GEKISAI SHO

2^nd       Soichiro Sasaki – USA – Sushiho

3^rd        Tomoai Nakayama – USA – Pinan Sono Yon

4^th        Hyuga Kasai – USA – Tsuki no Kata

JUNIOR ADVANCED KATA

1^ST       SHUN SUGAWARA – USA – SUSHIHO

2^nd       Showta Moriyama – USA – Sushiho

3^rd        Plamen Bonev – Bulgaria – Kanku

4^th        Ryo Sugawara – USA – Saifa

TAMESHIWARI

1^ST       KRYSZTOF HABRASZKA – POLAND, 29 boards

2^nd       Anderson Da Silva – Brazil, 29 boards (tie decided by weight)

3^rd        Eduardo Tanaka – Brazil, 26 boards

4^th        Zahari Damyanov – Bulgaria, 22 boards

*BEST TECHNIQUE – ZAHARI DAMYANOV

*BEST SPIRIT – JULIE LAMARRE

*BEST TAMESHIWARI - KRYSZTOF HABRASZKA

The 2008 All American Open Karate Championships

Saturday, September 20, 2008 - New York City

~ REVIEW ~

The 2008 All American Open Karate Championships were held in New York City, USA on Saturday, September 20.  Kyokushin competitors from 16 IKO member countries took part in the event, which was presided over by IKO Kyokushinkaikan President, Kancho Shokei Matsui and IKO South American Chairman, Shihan Seiji Isobe.

This All American was the 13^th major competitive event in New York City sanctioned by the IKO Kyokushinkaikan and served to bring IKO members together of all ages for the experience and camaraderie of serious competition thereby developing the skills of the participants, and promoting to the public the ultimate goal of our organization as a whole, World Peace.

The event began early in the day with Kata and Youth competition.  In the Adult Open Kata division, the Bulgarian beauty and sidekick to former World Open contender, Emil Kostov, Gergana Kostova managed to once again reign supreme here, overcoming, in particular, former World Kata Champion, Raluca Jianu of Romania to take home the All American Kata title.

The Women’s Kumite divisions were each full to bursting with truly remarkable talents.  From the return to New York of Poland’s Ewa Pawlikowska, former All American and Women’s World Lightweight Champion, to the towering powerhouse, US Women’s Heavyweight and second place in the Women’s World Heavyweight division, Danaila Cherneva of Bulgaria, to the Canadian favorite and 4x All American Middleweight Champion, Julie Lamarre; the Women’s event in New York has become one of the most culturally diverse and technically savvy competitions on the Kyokushin tournament circuit.  Indeed, the wealth of talented women converged at this 2008 All American was a veritable microcosm of the Women’s World stage and illustrated the brilliancy of Kyokushin in the female form. 

Needless to say, these three ladies fought feverishly and each championed their respective weight divisions and went on to a final match to vie for the All American Yokozuna title (champion of the three women’s weight divisions).  For the 2^nd time, Canada’s Julie Lamarre walked away with the crown of Yokozuna Champion, and the very special recognition of Kancho Matsui, who presented her with the Best Spirit Award of the entire tournament.

If the talent pool in the Women’s division was superlative, the roster in the Men’s Open division was near supreme.  With so many international fighters in attendance, diversity was to be expected, but the comprehensive range of technique displayed from these young men was so mind-boggling, that onlookers couldn’t contain themselves to observe how outstanding Kyokushin truly is.

The IKO Kyokushinkaikan sanctioned the All American in 1996 as a platform to bring together the very best competitors from North, Central and South America.  In recent years, with the rise of Brazil’s Ewerton Teixeira, who proved his international prowess in New York and last year became Kyokushin’s World Open Champion, the All American Championships has become known almost as a stepping stone or spring board for competitors in preparation for the most elite competitive events in the Kyokushin world.

Besides the local favorites from the US and Canada including Canadian Middleweight Champion, Dominic Adam, Canadian Superheavyweight Champion, Sylvain Lemire, two-time US Superheavyweight Champion, Slawomir Was and two-time IKO International Youth Heavyweight Champion, Shohei Yamamoto, some of the most noted and sensational international favorites at the 2008 All American included the ‘Spanish Fly’, Alejandro Navarro, and Spain’s ‘Fire Fighter’, Pablo Estensoro, Japan’s ‘Rising Son’, Zenjuro Mori, Japan’s ‘Dynamo’ Kentaro Aso, Poland’s ‘Technician’, Krzysztof Habraszka, the ‘Bulgarian Bear’, Petar Martinov, two former All American Champions: the ‘Brazilian Samurai’ Eduardo Tanaka, and the ‘Brazilian Bigfoot’ Sergio da Costa, as well as the relative newcomer, fast on the rise from Bulgaria, ‘Iron Man’, Zahari Damyanov.

Heading into the quarter-finals, the Best 8 in competition for the top prize were, in Block A, Alejandro Navarro vs. Brazil’s young Anderson da Silva, in Block B, Slawomir Was vs. Sergio da Costa, in Block C, Zahari Damyanov vs. Krzysztof Habraszka and in Block D, Pablo Estensoro vs. Eduardo Tanaka.

Twenty-one year old upstart, Anderson da Silva, from the renowned Liberdade Dojo in Brazil, was neck and neck with the doggedness of European Heavyweight Champion, Alejandro Navarro but managed after 2 extensions to just defeat Navarro by Tameshiwari to advance da Silva went into the semi-final round.

In Block B, Slawomir Was withdrew from competition due to a severe break to his right arm that he suffered during the Tameshiwari contest, which allowed Sergo da Costa to advance easily to the Semis.

The battle between Damyanov and Habraszka was hot, with both men seemingly toe to toe for the most part, but Damyanov’s momentum, speed and strategy gave him a visible edge that the judges decided 4-0 was more than enough to thrust Damyanov into the Semi. 

Eduardo Tanaka and Pablo Estensoro were seemingly evenly matched, but Tanaka clearly overpowered in the first 3 minutes.  Tanaka went into the semi-final round 5-0.

In the first semi-final match, Anderson da Silva faced off against Sergio da Costa - Brazil vs. Brazil.  Unfortunately for the spectators, the teammates could display little passion to defeat one another and so the strongest emerged as the more tenured of the two, Sergio da Costa.

For the second semi-final match-up, Zahari Damyanov and Eduardo Tanaka took the stage.  Though he entered the tournament the clear favorite and was consistently driven through the course of the day, his fever pitch just couldn’t dominate over the zeal of Damyanov; and the judges awarded Damyanov a unanimous score of 5-0 in the first 3minute round.

Which brought us to the pinnacle of the competition for the day – the Men’s Open Final.  As the two worthy contenders entered the mat, Damyanov, eager with anticipation at his first All American final, and da Costa, returning to the All American final match for his second time since he won the Championship in 2000, everyone’s eyes were center-stage.

Sergio da Costa used to be known as the “Third Man” from Brazil, behind the 2 major players, Filho and Feitosa.   Finally he took the All American title in 2000 and was destined for greatness.  But in the interim, da Costa faced the most difficult time of his life, the loss of his beloved fiancée, and Shihan Isobe’s daughter, Kiyomi.  Her death last year was a tragedy that blanketed the entire Brazilian team and lent a bittersweet taste to Teixeira’s victory at the World Open in 2007.   Was da Costa ready to challenge himself again here in New York?  Or was he past his prime?  Well, he made it this far, and above so many awesome fighters today.  And having the experience of this stage before, he was certainly the more seasoned man.

Compared to da Costa, Zahari Damyanov is green, but like bamboo, he grows exponentially, and with each event he appears in.  He has really only been a fixture on the IKO tournament circuit for a couple of years.  He may be young and inexperienced next to the many renowned and spectacular fighters placed in the All American draw, but he is determined; and though humble, he stems from Emil Kostov tutelage and has undoubtedly been bred as Champion material.

In the first 3 minutes, neither Zahari nor da Costa backed down.  Both men came out pummeling heavy-barreled punches to each other and firing devastating kicks to the body and legs that might topple lesser men.  But for these two, it was a fairly even match.  The judges were called upon to decide and could not find a conclusive winner, raising just 2 out of 5 arms for Damyanov; but that was a telling start.  Da Costa would need to turn it around fast if he was to keep the title within his grasp.  In the first 2 minute extension, Zahari pulled out all the stops.  His successive punch and kick onslaught, though undeniably heavy, couldn’t topple the solidity of da Costa’s stance, but it did quite enough to keep him at bay.  Da Costa could not retaliate effectively enough through Damyanov’s attacks in order to overcome him in that short time. 

As the buzzer rang, it was unequivocally clear to the judges that Damyanov had it in the bag.  For the first time in 10 years, Brazil did not win the All American Open.  Zahari Damyanov, the up and coming young star out of Bulgaria, elevated himself in a field of dozens of outstanding national champions, to become the 2008 All American Open Champion.