Both Canada's Women's and Men's Kendo Team placed third at the I I th World Kendo Championships held in Santa Clara California USA during the March 25th weekend.  Sponsored by the International Kendo Federation, this year's championships included 300+ participants representing over 40 countries as well as hosting the first official women's individual and semiofficial team competition

Team Canada, represented by Delegation Head and Canadian Kendo Federation President Roy Asa, Team Manager Richard Tizzard, Men's Coach Ray Murao, Women's Coach Mark Noda and Men's Team Players Bryan Asa (Captain), Taro Ariga, Motoki Asaoka, Matthew Raymond, Dean Ara, Suguru Asaoka, Daisaku Taguchi, Eddie Yamashita, Shigemitsu Kamata and Women's Team Players Wendy Nakano (Captain), Maya Taguchi Makiko Hayashi, Corie Namba, Hana Ariga, Chiharu Hao and Misato Akitaya, put forth one of Canadian Kendo's best performances in international competition

On Friday March 24, Day One (Women's Individual and Team competition) of the 3 Day event, all individual players fought valiantly with Canada's Wendy Nakano winning the fighting spirit award for her performance in the individual division and the Women's Team, made up of all seven women team members, pulling a stunning upset by defeating the heavily favoured Korean Women's team by a score of 1-0 matches in the preliminary round of the Team Matches on a single point by Maya Taguchi.  The match was extremely exciting and our players showed exceptional courage, willpower and teamwork.  The Team continued to advance, defeating Argentina and taking the bronze medal before losing narrowly to the Brazilian Team in the semi-finals by a score of I -0 matches.  Team Japan defeated Team Brazil in the finals to take the team
title.  T. Kawano of Japan won the Women's individual competition.

On Day Two (Men's individual competition), Canada's individual representatives also competed with Suguru Asaoka (Top 8) and Dean Ara also being awarded fighting spirit awards.  N. Eiga of Japan defeated IC Takenaka of Japan to win the Men's individual title.

On the final day (Men's Team competition), the men's Team took the bronze medal after defeating France, Sweden and Chinese Taipei in the quarter finals and showed an outstanding display of discipline and teamwork in their semi-final match with Japan.  Canada took the lead in the team match after Senpo (1st Player) S. Kamata and Jiho (2nd Player) M. Raymond successfully took their counterparts to a draw and Chuken (3rd Player) S. Asakoka shocked the crowd by defeating Hirao of Japan by a 2-1 score.  Under considerable pressure and tension, Japan was able to rally in the final two matches against Fukusho (4th Player) M. Asaoka and Taisho (5th Player) T. Ariga and defeated Canada by a heartbreaking 2-1 match score.  To date, the match represents Canada's best showing against Japan in International competition.  Team Japan went on to defeat Team Korea in the final team match by a 2-1 score.

Once again, Japan continued its dominance of the Kendo world by taking 1st place positions in all individual and team divisions as they have done in all other IO World Kendo Championships.

Over the past I I World Championships (held every three years) / 30 years, Canada's men's team has placed Silver in 1973 and 1976, and Bronze in 1985, 1988, 1991, 1994 and 2000).

An increased, focused and experienced coaching and management staff, the injection of younger and more energetic players to the team, increased local training practices, the re-establishment of pre-tournament Team Canada training camps(in Saskatoon and Steveston), the return of members (both management and players) hungry to redeem themselves from a disappointing performance at the last tournament in Kyoto and a commitment, a belief in one another and a powerful sense of ‘teamwork’ all came together during the past few months and enabled Canadian Kendo to reach its goals in international competition.  Let’s learn from this experience and ensure that we stay hungry, continue to develop our younger players, train hard and value and respect all of our friendships and relationships through Kendo.

On behalf of the members of Team Canada 2000, we would like to thank all Kendoka and friends of Kendo Canada for all of your support over the past months in preparation for the World Championships. Every effort and show of support contributed to our performance. Thank you. 

Bryan Asa and Wendy Nakano
 

The selection process has been completed, and it is with great pleasure that I announce the delegation that will represent Canada at the 11th World Kendo Championships in Santa Clara, California in March 2000. The Members of the delegation will be as follows:

Ladies’ Team

Misato Akitaya, Hana Ariga, Chiharu Hao, Mako Hayashi, Wendy Nakano, Corie Namba,  Maya Taguchi

Men’s Team

Dean Ara, Taro Ariga, Bryan Asa, Motoki Asaoka, Suguru Asaoka, higemitsu Kamata, Philip Nishikiyama, Matthew Raymond, Daisaku Taguchi, Eddy Yamashita

Officials

Ray Murao (Men’s Coach), Mark Noda (Ladies’ Coach), Richard Tizzard (Team Manager)

Delegation Head

Roy Asa, CKF President 
 

The selection process could not have been completed without the kind assistance of the referees and other volunteers who helped run the Regional and National round-robin shiai and the 13th Canadian Kendo Championships. On behalf of the CKF, I would once again like to thank all of those who took time from their busy schedules to lend a hand.

In addition, I would like to thank all of the prospects from across the country that competed for the honour of representing Canada at the 11th WKC. Whether or not you were selected, I hope that participation in the process was a very positive experience for you, and beneficial for developing your Kendo. 

Finally, let me extend my congratulations to those who were selected to the team. I know that all members of the CKF will join me in wishing the team members, coaches and manager every success as they begin the long and demanding process of training and preparing for the 11th WKC next March.

Sincerely yours,
Roy Asa
President, Canadian Kendo Federation 

2. Prospects: 
12 prospective candidates are chosen from 3 areas based on population
a) 5 from the Western division (BC, Alta, Sask)
b) 5 from the Central division (Man, Ont)
c) 2 from the Eastern division (Que and Maritimes)
d) each division will conduct their own selection process

3. Team Canada Selections: (10 players)
a) 2 top finishers at the 13th Canadian Kendo Championships July 3, 1999
b) 4 top finishers from the round robin shiai to be held July 4, 1999. the round robin shiai will be restricted to the 12 prospects selected earlier.
c) Coaches and manager will select 4 players.

1. Ladies Qualifications:
a) Kendo 1dan or over
b) 16 years of age or older as of Dec. 31 1998.
c) Adequate mental and physical health
d) Canadian citizenship
e) CKF member in good standing

2. Team Canada Selections: (7 players)
a) 2 top finishers at the 13th Canadian Kendo Championships July 3, 1999
b Coaches and manager will select 5 players.

Below are the results of Saturday's Central Region (Ontario and Manitoba) round robin shiai. With 16 participants, we required 120 matches for everyone to play everyone else. It was a tough day for everyone, starting about 9:30 and ending at 3:00.

Many thanks again to the referees, especially chief referee Tsumura Sensei, for their hard work. Our gratitude also goes to the timekeepers and scorekeepers (mostly from the JCCC Dojo) who gave their time to make this event appen.Thanks as well to Team Canada Coach Ray Murao who came in from BC to help oversee the event.

The top five players will now advance to the July 4 National Round Robin in Toronto with the prospects selected from Eastern and Western Regions. Congratulations to all the participants!

We had one injury during the shiai. Eddy Yamashita had to withdraw mid-way through what was shaping up to be a very successful day for him, due to what appeared to be a torn or stretched Achilles tendon. The good news is that after a visit to the hospital, the injury turned out to be a very severe and painful calf muscle cramp. Eddy was able to walk again by late Saturday afternoon and should be back in good form again for the National Championships in Toronto on July 3.

 Central Region Prospect Selection Shiai - June 19, 1999
     Final Results
 

For those of you who do not already know, the prospects at the Eastern Region (Quebec and Maritimes) round-robin in Montreal on May 22 were Pierre Sasseville and Martin Dore. I don't have scores to report from that event. I'm sure most of you know Pierre and Martin, two very prominent members of the Quebec Kendo community. Congratulations to them both.

The results from the June 5 Western Region (BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan) selections, held in Vancouver, are below.

  Western Region Prospect Selection Shiai - June 5, 1999
      Final Results

	Name	Wins	Ties	Total Score	Points Scored
1	S. Asaoka	9	5	23	16
2	D. Ara	7	6	20	13
3	M. Asaoka	6	7	19	9
4	B Shirahama	5	8	18	10
5	T. Kondo	5	8	18	9
6	D Taguchi	3	10	16	6
7	P. Nishikihama	6	2	14	12
8	S Ono	3	8	14	7
9	A. Shirran	3	8	14	7
10	G. Ohara	2	9	13	6
11	R. Shirahama	5	2	12	9
12	B. Yanagawa	4	2	10	7
13	R. Inaoka	2	5	9	6
14	L. Tsuji	1	3	5	5
15	B. Campbell (Calgary)	0	5	5	3

Congratulations to all the BC participants. 

As you can see, it looks like Coach Ray Murao and I will have every opportunity to put together a very strong Canadian Men's Team for the March, 2000 World Championships in San Jose, CA. See you all at the Nationals
in a few weeks!

Richard Tizzard
Team Canada Manager