We had 5 fighters from our Dojo.

Shohei Yamamoto Men’s open

Tyson Naito Men’s open

April Kim Women’s light weight

Showta Moriyama Jr. Kata & Kumite

Soichiro Sasaki Jr. Kata & Kumite

Showta Moriyama Jr. Advance Kata 2nd place

Soichiro Sasaki Jr. Jr. Intermediate Kata 2nd Place Also, Kumite 8-9years old 2nd place

Shohei won the first fight with very high skilled Russian fighter and went to the 2nd round.

In 2nd round of the tournament, the world top6 fighter Alejandro Navarro (Spain) was waiting for him.

Shohei fought very tough in a first 2min and put Navarro into a corner.

At the decision, Shohei got 2 flags voted to him and only one to Navarro. But as you know, two flags are not enough to win (need three or more out of 5 judges) so they went to 2min extension.

In a extension fight, Navarro woke up and gave Shohei a hard time. Shohei learned how high the world top 6 is. But he also felt that it is not too high for him to reach.

Tyson Naito faced another world tournament experienced fighter Leonardo Tavares (Brazil). This was Tyson’s first experience of NY open weight tournament.

He could not win but it was good lesson to him for the future.

April Kim fought vs. Stanislava Boycheva (Bulgaria). Also, this was her first fight in NY. Lost in first round but now she is ready for the January US Weight Category Tournament in LA.