{"id":5216,"date":"2019-05-18T03:34:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T03:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.judoalberta.com\/?p=5216"},"modified":"2019-05-18T03:35:02","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T03:35:02","slug":"okamura-and-palmer-still-on-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/okamura-and-palmer-still-on-top\/","title":{"rendered":"OKAMURA AND PALMER STILL ON TOP"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edmonton, May\u00a016, 2019 \u2013 Thursday was the first day of the Canadian Open Judo Championships at the Butterdome of the University of Alberta.<\/p>\n

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Okamura and Palmer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The competition started on Thursday morning with the kata tournament, with many of Canada\u2019s best athletes under the spotlight, including\u00a0Gord\u00a0Okamura<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Kelly\u00a0Palmer<\/strong>, long-time partners and regular faces on the podium at the international level.<\/p>\n

The duo decided that this year would be their last year competing on the circuit after 14\u00a0years together, and they\u2019re making sure to leave on a high note. After winning a gold and a silver medal at the Pan-American Kata Championships in Peru just a few weeks ago, they are back with two gold medals in Edmonton in Katame No Kata and Kime No Kata.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are absolutely delighted with today\u2019s results,\u201d said Palmer. \u201cWe are qualified for the World Championships later this year, and we will enjoy every second of it, but there is no doubt in our minds that now is the right moment to retire, before our performance level starts to drop. We will keep training in judo, and I was asked to be a kata coach for other duos, which is something that I plan on doing. I might even compete again with other partners, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be able to reach the same level I did with Gord.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to thank Judo Canada for their support over the years. They gave us so many great opportunities with kata clinics and tournaments, they were behind each medal that we have won,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Danielle\u00a0Ferland<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Aiko\u00a0Lachaine<\/strong>, who also won a gold medal in Peru, were crowned again in Edmonton in Ju No Kata.\u00a0Martin\u00a0Valli\u00e8res<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Patrick\u00a0Roffi<\/strong>\u00a0won gold in Goshin Jutsu, and\u00a0Bailey\u00a0Hu<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Shane\u00a0Rooney<\/strong>\u00a0triumphed in Nage No Kata.<\/p>\n

Cheyenne\u00a0Fiandor and Jeff\u00a0Allen Ne Waza Grand Champions<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ne Waza tournament took place on the mats at the Butterdome after katas.\u00a0Cheyenne\u00a0Fiandor<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Jeff\u00a0Allen<\/strong>, after winning in their respective categories, were back to win the overall champion titles.<\/p>\n

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Allen and Fiandor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It was a surprise win for Allen, from the Huntsville Judo Club, who didn\u2019t know there would be an overall category until he won the title in +81\u00a0kg. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting it, but I guess it all worked out in the end!\u201d he commented. \u201cI\u2019ve been fighting for about 8\u00a0years, and I first joined with my son just for fun, but I\u2019ve been doing better and better each year, and it\u2019s great to win the overall champion title now, I\u2019m very happy with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because there were only 2\u00a0fighters in his category, Allen had to defeat\u00a0Chris\u00a0Hodgson<\/strong>\u00a0twice to get through to the grand champion finale, where he also won against\u00a0Brennan\u00a0Jolley<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Vincent\u00a0Marticotte<\/strong>. Jeff\u00a0Allen will be competing again in the tournament in +100\u00a0kg, first as a Veteran on Friday, then as a Senior on Sunday.<\/p>\n

On the women\u2019s side, the title was won by Cheyenne\u00a0Fiandor (-63\u00a0kg) from the Nanaimo Judo Club. Fiandor had planned to fight alongside her sister during the weekend, but her sister couldn\u2019t attend after breaking her leg just days before leaving for Edmonton. \u201cI was nervous coming in, because I\u2019ve missed trainings to be with her at the hospital. It was sad to know she wouldn\u2019t be coming, but it gave me the motivation to win, I wanted to get that medal for her,\u201d said Fiandor.<\/p>\n

Cheyenne eliminated\u00a0Sienna\u00a0McCorkell<\/strong>\u00a0in her category, then\u00a0Jennifer\u00a0Nguyen<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Chelys\u00a0Vallejo<\/strong>\u00a0in the grand champion tournament. It was a first national title for her, after winning a few bronze medals in the past. \u201cIt had been a while since the last time I competed at Nationals, because I took a year off to go to school. It\u2019s great to come back this year and see that I\u2019m stronger than ever!\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Written by Sarah\u00a0Mailhot for Judo Canada<\/p>\n

Information:
\nPatrick\u00a0Esparb\u00e8s
\nChief Operating Officer
\n(514)\u00a0668-6279<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edmonton, May\u00a016, 2019 \u2013 Thursday was the first day of the Canadian Open Judo Championships at the Butterdome of the University of Alberta. Okamura and Palmer The competition started on Thursday morning with the kata tournament, with many of Canada\u2019s best athletes under the spotlight, including\u00a0Gord\u00a0Okamura\u00a0and\u00a0Kelly\u00a0Palmer, long-time partners and regular faces on the podium at(…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5219,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5216\/revisions\/5219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}