It has been a busy three weeks for athletes from the Kizuna Judo Club in Pitt Meadows, and now the club is taking part in their annual trip to Japan.
There were four U16 competitors across different zones participating in the BC Winter Games held in Trail-Rossland from Feb. 15 to March 1. Medallists included Kai Suda (44 kg individual gold, and Zone 4 team gold) and Evelina Khazhevskaia (57 kg individual silver, and Zone 3 Team bronze). Josie Harford (63 kg Zone 4 team gold) and Mari Maihara (48 kg zone 5 team bronze) performed a solid routine together in the Kata competition.
The athletes were accompanied by Kizuna coaches Ashley Nobeashi (Zone 3) and Teya Maihara (Zone 5).
The following weekend, on March 6-8, Kizuna coaches Ashley and Takeru Nobeashi brought four representatives from Team Kizuna to the Edmonton International, where they battled stiff competition from across Canada. Suda (U16 advanced 46 kg bronze) and Evan Lavides (senior intermediate 60 kg bronze) fought hard to achieve podium finishes in their categories, while Ian Kim (U21 and senior advanced 66 kg) and Khazhevskaia (U16 and U18 advanced 57 kg) both competed in two categories and gained invaluable experience.
Finally, on March 13-15, the team sent nine athletes to the Pacific International at the Richmond Olympic Oval. The tournament was started by the most junior athlete, Kei Hoshina (U14 novice 32 kg) who claimed silver in a breakthrough performance.
With the stage set, Jeremy Colby won three straight matches to claim gold in the senior intermediate 81 kg category, while Lavides dominated across five bouts to earn gold in the senior intermediate 60 kg category. Khazhevskaia (U16 advanced 57 kg) and Suda (U16 advanced 46 kg) achieved bronze medals, with little time to recover after being challenged the day before in the U18 age group, where Evan, Evelina, and Kai all had top ten finishes.
Ian Kim (U21 and senior advanced 66 kg) faced an eventual winner and runner-up in stacked categories, where the results do not speak to the grit he displayed across the two days of competition.
In the kata portion of the event, Mari Maihara and Harford (U16) performed the nage-no-kata set 3 and won silver, beating the winning BC Winter Games team.
Then, in a special moment, sisters Teya and Mari Maihara performed the same set in the U21 group and won gold.
Next for the Kizuna Judo Club is the annual Japan trip from March 16 to April 6, where several athletes, parents, and coaches will train with some of the strongest judoka in the world.