IGA Kendo Club

The IGA-Kendo Club ended the year with a Christmas Shiai like no other!

The afternoon started with the IGA-Ken members trooping to the College of Human Kinetics Gymnasium of the University of the Philippines, Diliman Campus, the venue for the event. The event was suppposed to start at 1pm, but due to the horrible traffic, most of the members came in between 130pm to 2pm, with some stragglers arriving as late as 230pm.

In spite of that glitch, the event started well enough, with Igarashi-Sensei explaining the format and the ground rules for the tournament. The first part of the tournament started shortly after.

The tournament started with the Kihon-Nobu Class, or non-bogu members, who were formed into two teams. The White Team was composed of Ems Maguan, Ivan Isada, Ivan Verona, Jiggy Matias, Nat Malit, Ralph Pobre, Xavier Tanchico, and their "spiritual leader" Boy D. The Red Team was composed of Dave Acuna, Ejay Angeles, Ferdz Andres, Karlo Agon, Kevin Enriquez, Lea Guerrero, Miriam Lalwani, Sam Al-Mualem, and Vonn Alfabeto. This competition showcased their knowledge of kihon and kendo basics. The Red Team won in a close match of 5 wins vs the 4 wins of the White Team.

The next phase of the tournament involved all the bogu class members. The bogu class members were divided into six teams, each captained by one senior member. The teams were:

1) Team French-Pinoy: Sempo - Vince Hernandez, Jiho - Leo Montalvo, Chuken - Gelo Manuel, Fukusho - Alvin Perez, Taisho - Alain Duminy (Team Captain)

2) Team Manslayer: Sempo - Len Santiago, Jiho - Ice Empeno, Chuken - Rikki Reyes, Fukusho - Max(ine) Labrador, Taisho - Loida Estanilla-Inting (Team Captain)

3) Team Inting's Angels: Sempo - Erika Simbulan, Jiho - Alexis Espina, Chuken - Julia Macaranas, Fukusho - Konishi Yui, Taisho - Kristopher Inting (Team Captain)

4) Matsu Team: Sempo - Max Gana, Jiho - Matsumoto Takeshi (Team Captain), Chuken - Inoue Yuta, Fukusho - Danika Velasco, Taisho - Wilbert Montalbo

5) Team Nano: Sempo - Anthon Cayaco, Jiho - Ain Cabonce, Chuken - Gama Cabria, Fukusho - Dardsie Abriol-Santos, Taisho - Neil Bascos (Team Captain)

6) Team Japan: Sempo - Erica Abriol-Santos, Jiho - Nix Lopez, Chuken - Nakagane Ryosuke (Team Captain), Fukusho - Jomar Romero, Taisho - Fort Liu

Matches were conducted in a single round-robin format, with each team facing off against each other once. The wins vs losses (draws were not counted) were tallied in order to determine the champion team. And in the end, the Championship went to TEAM NANO! For winning three matches vs. two losses, the most wins by any team. So congratulations TEAM NANO!

The day ended with a "Santa" moment, when kendo equipment were distributed to the various members, and the Christmas Party in Julia's Party Pad. All in all, it was a very exciting and enjoyable event.

Just some notes from the tournament:

1) The fastest match of the event was the taisho match between Team Inting's Angels and Matsu Team. Inting went for the win against Montalbo and won with a men-ari and kote-ari in under 20 seconds. You can view the video of this match here.

2) The taisho match between Matsu Team and Team Nano could be considered as the most "brutal" match in the shiai. Bascos and Montalbo went all out, and Bascos even wound up breaking his shinai against Montalbo's defense at one point.

3) The most cheered on match was the  taisho match between Team Manslayer and Team Inting's Angels. It was the match of Inting vs Inting, and Inting won ;)!  The spectators could not get enough of this husband vs. wife match-up. You can view a video of this match here.

4) Three players won all their matches. Matsumoto won all his matches in the Jiho position, Nakagane in the Chuken position, and Inting in the Taisho position.

Videos of the other matches will be posted when available, but for the meantime please enjoy the ones posted above, and the following below:

1) Most Competitive Chuken Match, Reyes vs Nakagane.

2) Most Competitive Match between two new bogu class members, Cabonce vs Montalvo.

3) Match that utilized most of the shiai-jo, Macaranas vs. Manuel.

Finally, on behalf of the IGA-Ken Management, we would like to thank all the members who participated and helped to make this event a very successful one. Special thanks to Igarashi-Sensei who continues to be a source of Kendo knowledge and inspiration for us. Also thanks to the members of the Events and Publicity Team for the behind the scenes efforts in making this event work.

We are certainly looking forward to the next shiai, and to the other activities of the IGA-Kendo Club in 2012 and beyond.

Cheers Everyone! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!