Asian grand masters Judo 2013 Day one



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Well that was a good two days for Auckland University Judo and aucklandbjj.com. We got two gold medals Vitaly Alileuv in M4 u100 and Alan Greene in M6 u100 and I got a sneaky silver in M2 u100.

The day started at 9am at the kodokan with all of the 730 athletes lined up on the 7th floor mats.

It was impressive seeing all the judoka up to M11 (that's 85) still competing and having fun with judo.

The kodokan is a fantastic venue with the 5th 6th and 7th floor all containing matted areas.

In fact, to access the competition area on the 7th floor you take the lift to the 4th floor, leave your shoes there and walk up 3 flights of stairs to the 7th, which is quite a feat if you are 85 (or even 37!)

My first fight was at 14:45 so I had plenty of time to look at all the other fights. I was very lucky with my draw and had a bye straight into the semi finals. The draw was strange as the Russian in my division needed to win twice to get to the semi finals (though I heard that if he had won his sponsor would have given him USD$15,000).

My first fight was against a 3rd Dan Japanese who was clearly tired from the previous fight, so I was glad of my bye. I figured out that I had a good chance as long as I didn't get thrown.

So I kept my inside grips and tried to rough him up on the ground, though the ref kept standing me up including the time when I was about to triangle choke him (judo refs often don't know what a triangle is so see it as no progress). After he walked out of the competition area and got a penalty his leg started cramping and I had to wait for a bit. Then I managed to pull him down with a sumi gaeshi attempt (about my 3rd in the fight) and then attacked the arm for an ippon.

My second fight for the final was against a Japanese 5 Dan who also had got a bye into the semi final. I had fought him before at the masters last year, and he was a nice guy with a sister in NZ. He proved too good for me with a sankaku (triangle) turn over and a neat arm wrap then transitioned to the pin and held me down for the win. I was delighted to get the silver and hopefully my first competition points towards my NZ judo black belt.

Afterwards we watched the other team members fights, notably Vitaly picking up the other u100 players and throwing them around like rag dolls on his way to winning a gold.

Then we left for the judo party,  at the party, Auckland University judo did the haka that the do every year (though really guys we need to practice next year) and ended up being the last ones left finishing the drinks.

Fight one: http://youtu.be/5--SSiqCLaU

Fight two: http://youtu.be/BNQfJO9Lb6w

Sensei and the Medalists

Dmitry winning the After party