"2001" BERMUDA OPEN

Hamilton Bermuda By R.J. Bishop

The Bermuda College in Hamilton Bermuda was the site for the "2001" BERMUDA OPEN. About 100 competitors from Bermuda and the USA participated in this very nice, small, well organized Tournament. The gracious hosts for this event were Kristina and Skipper Ingham. Skipper Ingham (The Godfather of Bermudian Martial arts) a Goju Rye stylist, is one of the true Martiai Arts legends.

The BERMUDA OPEN was a KRANE World Rated Tournament, and also a WCMAO rated event.

Several Top USA Competition teams were in attendance including Master John Chung’s TEAM SIDEKICK INTERNATIONAL, and Dennis Molloy’s PITBULL’S INTERNATIONAL KARATE TEAM.

The tournament began at 10:30 AM, starting with the Open hand Kata divisions. I was impressed with the strong Traditional Kata’s display that day, especially from local talent Talia Iris. These local Martial Artists are very well schooled.

Next were the Weapons divisions. Again I saw a nice balance of both Tradition and Open Weaponry from both the locals and the American competitors. TEAM SIDEKICK’S Matt Commisky really impressed the judges with his double Nunchuku forms as did his teammate Al Szafranski with her Kama form.

The Kumite divisions were next, and boy there were a lot of spirited matches going on that day. The medics were kept quite busy during that stretch of the tournament.

Overall I thought the tournament went very well and we hope to come back again next year. If you want to go to a nice, small, fair tournament in a prime vacation setting, then consider the BERMUDA OPEN.


Grand Championship winners

BOY’S NOVICE/INTERMEDIATE KATA: Samuel Thompson

GIRL’S NOVIVE/INTERMEDIATE KATA: Nicole Neal

BOY’S BROWN/BLACK BELT KATA: James Holland

GIRL’S BROWN/BLACK BELT KATA: Jessica Mellon

MEN’S BLACK BELT KATA: William Holland

WOMEN’S BLACK BELT KATA: Talia Iris

BOY’S BLACK BELT WEAPONS: James Holland

GIRL’S BLACK BELT WEAPONS: Jessica Mellon

MEN’S BLACK BELT WEAPONS: Nick Demetrius

WOMEN’S BLACK BELT WEAPONS: Talia Iris

MEN’S BLACK BELT KUMITE: Jonanthan Lugo