19th WKF World Championships in Tokyo... Part 2

[Note: Still need a bit of time for the pics.]

By the way, be sure to check out all the results here. And a very special congratulations to Canadians Saeed Baghbani (3rd place, Men's Individual Kumite, -70kg) and Nassim Varasteh (2nd place, Women's Individual Kumite, -60kg).

Sunday
After sleeping some 5hrs, it was back to the Budokan for another day of the tournament.

This time around, with a better understanding of what's going on, I got straight to work organizing the rings. I got a hold of all the tournament ladders so I knew what fights were running and waiting to be run and, along with Richard, we set about making sure the rings run smoothly. Eventually, we split up and I took rings 1 and 2 while Richard took 3 and 4.

The work mainly consisted of making sure all the teams were sat on the correct side of the ring and in the order they were to fight in. When they were done, I'd make sure they'd keep moving either to their new seat position for their next fight or to wait outside whether they lost or just had to wait for the next batch of fights.

As expected, some of the coaches and competitors were rather reluctant to move, sometimes because they thought it was bothersome that they had to move all the time or because they wanted to stay to watch the fights. I found the best way to deal with them was to politely ask them and explain that the next group of fighters were coming. Eventually, they started to recognize me and, at times visibly reluctantly, would heed my requests and move out of the way.

Oh, and I also got myself a walkie-talkie with an earpiece- just like a secret agent!! Richard had let me in on his little secret about dealing with non-compliant coaches by putting his hand on the earpiece and pretending like the head table was telling him to tell the coach to clear the area. Sneaky haha......

Famous People
Being a world championship, it's expected that there are a lot of rather famous or important karate athletes, coaches, and instructors there. And working the floor, I had the privilege of meeting, talking briefly with, or at least seeing many of them.

People like:

Robbie Smith Sensei, New Zealand- Widely regarded as one of the best Wadokai instructors not currently teaching in Japan, if not just one of the best, period. Very well respected and very courteous. Funny too, as I found in the farewell party.

Ticky Donovan, England- David 'Ticky' Donovan is perhaps the most famous karate coach and former competitor to come out of England. Aside from winning a world championship in 1976, he led the British team to 5 consecutive world titles in '82, '84, '86, '88, and '90.

Manuel Monzon, Canada- Team Canada Head Coach, he led Saeed and Nassim to their respective 3rd and 2nd place finishes. He's also an all-around nice guy who was very kind during the tournament, never bothered by my constant ushering of competitors. He was even nicer at the party, where we chatted some more. Perhaps I'll compete under him for Canada someday....... perhaps haha....... Oh, and I didn't get a chance to talk to Saeed, but I did meet Nassim, who's a happy, energetic, and driven girl from Toronto.

John Fonseca and Elisa Fonseca Au, USA- Independently both well-established karate champions in their own right, they recently married to form some kind of undefeatable marital karate superpower. Elisa came in 2nd in Women's Individual Kumite, +60kg.

Team Hong Kong China and Team Macau
"Wow, you speak Chinese?!?!"................ I suppose this is a legitimate shock since we ~are~ all in a foreign country. And they were used to dealing with the Japanese in English. And they thought I was Japanese. And probably a bunch of other reasons....... I was shocked too- that I could still remember how to speak it haha.....

But really, I was quite happy that I could help those teams out in Cantonese, especially since they had some rather important concerns like finding one of their athlete's ID cards.

And actually, at the farewell party, I got to chatting with the chairman of the Karatedo Federation of Hong Kong China. He mentioned there isn't any Wado-ryu in Hong Kong but I intend on staying in touch and visiting him next year when I'm in HK. Maybe there'll be something I can do about helping the Wadokai expand =).....

Farewell Party
Held in a giant banquet hall of a hotel in Shinagawa, it was a rather fantastic party. I mean, the president of the French karate association bought 100 bottles of champagne for everyone, probably because they did so well (second only to Japan in terms of medal rankings). This, in addition to the seemingly endless supply of other drinks...

Then there was the buffet, which was enormous!! I mean, lots and lots and lots of food. Like, "enough smoked salmon to choke a killer whale" lots............. I ate a lot........

They also had a taiko drumming group give a performance, which was one of the best taiko performances I've seen.

Towards the last half of the evening, Richard and I took it upon ourselves to hand out the tournament results. We figured it would be a good way to meet various athletes and coaches as well as pacify quite a few people upset by the fact that it took a long time to print and compile over 100 copies of the results (not just the finalist, but the entire tournament ladder results for all the divisions), many of whom I had to deal with.

But in the end, it was great. We just walked around, was happy and congenial, shook their hands, and just tried to help everyone enjoy their what little time they had left in Japan.


By the time I got home Sunday night at 11pm, I was exhausted from having volunteered for nearly 22hrs over two days. But it was a great experience to have been at the world championship, especially being able to be at the front table and be a part of all of it. There was much to learn from how the best athletes warm-up, train, and compete to how a tournament of this calibre needs to be run to what kind of spirit it takes to win.

And......... it's a World Championship. How many times would I get to say that I've gone?? =)