41st Osaka New Student Men's Kendo Championships & The 1st Osaka Student Women's Kendo Championships

On Sunday the 20th of June, 2010, both the 41st Osaka New Student Mens Championships & the 1st Osaka New Student Womens Championships were held at Ohama Gymnasium, Osaka.

A shiai designed to show off the new talent in each university kendo club, the best of the 1st and 2nd year students gather each year to compete in either the individual or the team events.

For the first time in it's long history, the 6 shiai-jo were host to both men's and women's individual bouts, with the teams division only participated in by the men.

A newbee 1st year to the Osaka University of Health and Sport Science kendo club (Taidai), Sawada Mai found herself in the finals against Matsunaga of Osaka Education University (Daikyodai). A hard fought match, Matsunaga eventually hit a deciding men-uchi to take the gold.

In the men's individual finals, Taidai's Yamazaki and Nanjo faced off for first place. Both 2nd years, these lads are well aware of each other's strengths, making for a high tension fight. In the end however, Yamazaki took two points from his clubmate, making it the 9th year in a row Taidai has won the individual division in this event.

In the men's teams fight, Taidai once again stepped up to the line. Their opponents were none other than Kansai University (Kandai). Rivalry between these two university kendo clubs increases with each shiai, as they seem to meet each other regularly at the top end of the draw many times throughout the season.

A nail-biting final, the first two fights ended with hikiwake. Uehara in the chuken position put Taidai ahead with a textbook tsuki on Kandai's Teramoto... only to be equalized with a kote strike in the next bout by Kandai's Ishida on Taidai's Ishizuka. The competition went into a sudden death daihyo-sen between Taidai's Kato and Kandai's Matsuo, with Kato sealing the teams division for Taidai with a lightening fast hiki-kote.

Results:

Womens Individuals
1st - Matsunaga (Osaka Education University "Daikyodai") 2nd - Sawada (Osaka University of Health and Sport Science "Taidai") 3rd - Yoshinaga (Kinki University "Kindai") 3rd - Yuasa (Nawate Shijo Tanki University)

Men's Individuals
1st - Yamazaki (Osaka University of Health and Sport Science "Taidai") 2nd - Nanjo (Osaka University of Health and Sport Science "Taidai") 3rd - Akaii (Kansai University "Kandai") 3rd - Tahara (Kinki University "Kindai")

Men's Teams
1st - Osaka University of Health and Sport Science 2nd - Kansai University 3rd - Kinki University 3rd - Osaka Education University