FRIENDSHIP TOURNAMENT

The 4^th Annual JUKADO FRIENDSHIP TOURNAMENT was recently held at the Wescott Jr. High School in Westbrook ME. JUKADO? What is JUKADO? JUKADO is a system combining the styles of Judo, Karate, Aikido and Kung Fu. This style was founded in 1972 by Terry Suyom Mayer in Branden VT and passed the torch to her son GRANDMASTER ALAN VIERNES.

Competitors and spectators from all over New England, Canada and Mexico were in attendance. Things got started shortly after 10:00 am with Maine’s own Veronica Henniger of Alexis Jiu Jitsu singing both the American & Canadian anthems. This tournament is truly an unique event; GRANDMASTER VIERNES is a true innovator. This tournament has the standard forms, Fighting and Weapons but also features Synchronized Forms, and Flag Sparring.

Flag Sparring which is only for the very young competitors (ages 5-9) is very popular with the youths and the spectators. You have four 1ft sections of a rank belt tucked in the front and backside of the competitors own rank belt and the object of the games is to take your opponents flags away before you lose your own. They look like undersized Sumo Wrestlers going at it, what a riot to watch. Next year GRANDMASTER VIERNES will add several Musical Kata Divisions. Musical Divisions are the hottest thing going in the Sport Karate nation.

It was wonderful to be a witness to WORLD CHAMPIONS GEORGE TURINI III’S flawless Bo Kata. This young man can match up to ANY Jr. competitor on the NASKA or NBL circuits (and I’ve seen them all). As always his performance turned heads and dropped jaws.

The FRIENDSHIP TROPHY for the best supporting school went to SABUMNIM RICHARD SMITH JR’s "Southern Maine TKD". SABUMNIM SMITH bought along a staggering 29 students.

As usual I thought that things ran smoothly and without any controversy. The judging was very fair, the competitors all showed good sportsmanship and overall this was another truly awesome tournament. I give it my TWO THUMBS UP rating.

This tournament was given a "1 Star" IPPONE rating but was given an "A" rating by the new SMART Rating system (their highest rating).

GRANDMASTER VIERNES was thrilled by the support of his comrades. Pre-registration numbers doubled over last year’s tournament. The final number of competitors was 261 and over 250 spectators attended. This wonderful tournament has outgrown the Jr. High School and GRANDMASTER VIERNES has assured me that this event will be moved into the much larger Westbrook H.S. in "2001".