In the case of Mary Decker, her sport, judo, has allowed her to go global. Decker, who started the sport while her family was living in England as missionaries, was hooked the first time she tried it.”
Photographs by Nikki Laurell
The following Suzuran athletes competed at the 2011 Denver Classic Judo Championships on October 22, 2011:
First out of our competitors was Dalton Evans competing in Co-Ed Novice 7-8, 66 lbs. Dalton’s only opponent was Jada Llamido from Ju Shin Kan in Colorado Springs, who is knocking on the door to be an orange belt. Dalton gave his best in two matches but Jada turned out to be too much this day.
Videos:
A fever-ridden Emil was up next of the Suzuran athletes, who had been sick the week before the tournament. The Standard Boys 9-10, 66 lbs division had a good showing of boys that all came to fight.
Emil’s first opponent was Greogry Teal from Hyland Hills Judo. Emil gave the match a valiant effort but lost on point. Next for Emil was Aiden Markussen from the OTC, who beat Emil in the Boulder tournament two weeks before. Not so this day, Emil throws Aiden for a beautiful Ippon. In the third match, an exhausted Emil faced Austin Gough from Hyland Hills Judo. Emil clearly gave all he had to give but tapped out in overtime, clearly exhausted. That was it for the day; Emil simply could not fight Corbin Mallo from Northglenn due to pure exhaustion.
Videos:
This was the second judo tournament for Sharayah and the first tournament since she started to train with Suzuran. Sharayah competed in the Novice Women Lightweight division facing Angie Moran from Denver Judo in a best-of-three competition… Sharayah only needed two matches to take home the gold.
Videos:
Thomas was back in competition for the first time since the Junior Olympics in July. This time, Thomas competed in the Senior Men 161 lbs division rather than in the junior division. Thomas clearly showed that he’s ready to fight at a senior level walking away with the silver.
Ian returned to competition after a few years absence. All in all, Ian fought nine matches, both in the Senior Men 198 lbs division and in the open division. Ian won silver in the 198 lbs division.
Suzuran was represented by three competitors at the 16th Annual Albert Tagawa Memorial Shiai on October 8, 2011:
Dalton’s bracket consisted of six competitors. Dalton’s first match was against a high-level yellow belt. The match hard fought both on the feet and on the ground. In the end, Dalton was pinned for Ippon. The second match was also against an experience yellow belt who ended the match and the day with pin for Ippon.
Videos:
This was the first judo tournament for Cade and what a great experience it was. Cade’s first match ended with Cade pinning his opponent for Ippon. Cade’s second match ended with a beautiful throw for Ippon and the gold.
Videos:
With this tournament, Emil changed age group to 9-10 year old boys. As many times before, Emil faced Aiden from the OTC, who Emil defeated in the 2011 Rocky Mountain Games. Unfortunately, Aiden won their match on Ippon. Emil’s second match showcased grip fighting and blocking throws, which allowed Emil to win the match with a Yuko thereby earning a silver.
Videos:
On this 9th day of September 2011, Dan and Thomas Chisholm were promoted to the rank of Ik-kyū (highest brown-belt rank).
At the same time, Emil Tapper was promoted to the junior rank of Rok-kyū (orange-green) and Dalton Evans was promoted to the junior rank of Jū-kyū (white-yellow).
Congratulations boys, you all have deserved these promotions!
Also, we wish Dan Chisholm a successful US Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego, California.
Highlight videos 2009-2011 of our most frequent competitors:
We look forward to more exciting video shots as our new generation of competitors become more active and gain more experience.