I couldn’t write about last weeks US Open, Kenny had the worst tournament of his career and didn’t place. I was in shock. Kenny had beaten every medalist in this tournament multiple times and yet last week he lost to two athletes that didn’t even place. Heads were shaking. Seiji fought well against a Canadian Junior world team member but lost a close match. He was down by koka and threw his opponent for yuko in the final seconds but it was waived off by the referees. I was quite unhappy for them.
However yesterday Kenny came back strong and won the Rendez-Vous in Montreal. The US Open and the Rendez-Vous are the only ‘B’ level tournaments in North America so they are the most important tournaments. Kenny beat last week’s US Open champion by ippon and last weeks highest American player Taylor Takata by ippon in the finals. A very good week and perhaps his doubters from last week now have to rethink their evaluation of him. I noticed that USA Judo never really writes Kenny up, they always write up Taylor and others but my impression is that they do not take Kenny seriously. I wonder about USA Judo sometimes, they are supposed to develop our elite athletes but they have not done much for Kenny at all. In the last two years no US athlete has won either the US Open or the Rendez-Vous except Kenny and he won the Rendezvous twice. Interestingly Justin Flores took 2nd in both tournaments last year and Taylor Takata took 2nd in both this year. I wonder how USA Judo is supporting/funding/developing these athletes. I see no announcements.
Seiji is in Belgium this weekend for an international junior event but I have no word yet. I think if he can win two matches in his first big international tournament it will be a good experience.
I was at the Denver Buddhist Novice tournament on Saturday watching the youngsters compete and feeling a bit nostalgic. I had very few athletes to coach and I was missing the days when I had my nephews and the rest of our junior team were competing. I couldn’t get as involved yesterday, I was more like an interested spectator. But one young boy I teach entered his first tournament (a yellow belt) and I didn’t really think he would do so well so I gave him the Karate Kid speech, Miyagi tells Daniel something like “win, lose no matter. Make good fight”. He promptly goes out full of confidence and throws the first kid in 15 seconds for ippon and then beats his next opponent to win his small division. The look of joy on his face was quite enough reward for me. I came home tired and took a nap when I was woken by a call informing me that Kenny had won, it made my day. Am I biased? You bet I am.
October 29, 2007
A late flash, Seiji won six straight matches and lost in the finals (6-1) and won a silver medal in Belgium. He is attending a camp and won’t return to San Jose until Thursday. It’s great news and he is really doing well when he isn’t in the same division as his older brother.
Kenny had a one hour layover today in Denver so His Mother and I went out to see him. But he really wanted to see his cats more than us so his Mom brought them. He looks good and strong.
Tags: joseph hashimoto, judo. kenny hashimoto, sam hashimoto, seiji hashimoto
