Fédération canadienne de naginata

March 19th marked the fourth annual Canadian Winter Classic Tournament! It was a jam-packed day with engi, individual shiai, and team shiai matches. Thank you to the volunteers who helped to run the tournament, and thank you to Marija Landekic for organizing the entire event.

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Engi

• First Place: Julia Luo & Marija Landekic
• Second Place: Joanna Nguyen & Keisuke Nakajima
• Third Place: Lutan Liu & Tomas Almonte

Individual Shiai

• First Place: Tomas Almonte
• Second Place: Marija Landekic
• Third Place: Kevin Hallé

Team Shiai

• First Place:
  • Tianyu Zhang, Marija Landekic, Grace Yoo
• Second Place:
  • Kevin Hallé, Keisuke Nakajima, Jason Lujan
• Third Place:
  • Jérémy Frandon, Raquel Trentin, Tomas Almonte

Best Match Award

• The Third Place Engi Match – Grace Yoo / Akiko Nakagawa vs. Lutan Liu / Tomas Almonte

Fighting Spirit Award

• Grace Yoo and Audrey Sassi

Three different Canadian Regional Taikai took place this year during the months of October and November. See below for the results of each one!

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Toronto Regional Taikai

October 30 was the Toronto Regional Engi Tournament!

It was a busy 10-match round robin engi tournament and everyone had the opportunity to shinpan for multiple matches. We hope everyone had the chance to show off what they’ve been working on and to practice being shinpan. Special thanks to Mary-Kate Proud for organizing the tournament.

Congratulations to:

• 1st Place: Tianyu Zhang & Lutan Liu
• 2nd Place: Juliette Lee & Tomas Almonte
• 3rd Place: Mirage Wu & Victor Lu

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Edmonton Regional Taikai

November 30 was the Edmonton Regional Tournament!

It was a peer-ranked uchikaeshi, engi, and kakari keiko tournament. Everyone had two attempts to try and improve their score where the highest scores counted towards a total. Excited to see everyone incorporate their feedback into regular practice for the next tournament! Special thanks to Alan McDougall for organizing the event.

Top scorers:

• 1st Place: Dan Bouchard
• 2nd Place: Alan McDougall

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Montreal Regional Taikai

Nov 13-14 was the Montreal Regional Tournament.
It was a shiai and engi tournament each with two pools of round robin. We were excited to see such an amazing turn out, and especially to welcome McGill Naginata beginners to their first tournament ever! Everyone had the opportunity to shinpan and to help run the tournament. Special thanks to Marija Landekic for organizing the event.

Shiai:

• 1st Place: Marija Landekic
• 2nd Place: Simon Bruins
• 3rd Place: Kevin Hallé

Engi:

• 1st Place: Simon Bruins & William Choi
• 2nd Place: Marija Landekic & Julia Luo
• 3rd Place: Jérémy Frandon & Akiko Nakagawa

Fighting Spirit: Akiko Nakagawa

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Congratulations and we hope everyone had fun!

Oct 16-17 was the return of the annual CNF Seminar! It was incredible to have so many clubs gather and to practice safely with everyone in person again.

This year’s seminar focused on solidifying fundamentals, taking bogu practice to the next level, learning to teach, and shinpan training. We hope that everyone found some points to reflect on and take back to home dojos!

Thank you very much to the instructors for all the sessions:

• Kaori Kubo (5dan)
• Marija Landekic (4dan)
• Tomas Almonte (3dan)
• Simon Bruins (3dan)
• Mary-Kate Proud (3dan)
• Lutan Liu (2dan) and Alan McDougall (2dan)

Keep an eye out for a future post on the Regional Taikai results!

We’re excited to announce the return of the annual CNF Seminar, and that Regional Taikai will be held in Western Canada, Toronto, and Quebec. Details below:

CNF Seminar:

• Dates: October 16 & 17
• Location: Montreal, Quebec
• Notes:
  • In person
  • CNF members only
  • Double-vaccination required
  • Mask required
  • All local, provincial, and federal health guidelines will be obeyed

Regional Taikai (and the relevant point-person):

• Toronto: October 30 – Mary-Kate Proud
• Edmonton: November 7 – Alan McDougall
• Montreal: November 14 – Marija Landekic

Please contact the point-person for each region for further details!

Le 7th World Naginata Championships were hosted by the Deutscher Naginata Bund (German Naginata Federation) and took place in Weisbaden, Germany from July 4-10, 2019.

The Championships involved various divisions:

• Engi:
  • Shikake-Oji
  • Zen Nihon Renmei no Kata
• Shiai:
  • Women’s Team
  • Men’s Team
  • Women’s Individual
  • Men’s Individual

Other than the actual tournament above, there was also the Goodwill Tournament:

• Goodwill Shiai Individual Women
• Goodwill Shiai Individual Men 

Among the many great naginataka, Team Canada earned 2nd place in Women’s Team Shiai! 🍁

Congratulations to both the McGill and Montreal Naginata Clubs on their outstanding showing at the JSS Yamauchi Memorial Taikai hosted by The East Coast Naginata Federation in New Jersey this past weekend.

Both clubs brought their best and brought back the hardware to prove it! Here are the taikai results:

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Dangai Engi:

• First: Trevor Won/Ahnika Emery
• Second: Karina Aksakal/Celia Slama (McGill)
• Third: Gwenyth Evans/Ching Ching Shiue

Yudansha Engi:

• First: Rebecca Pomeroy/Jessica Espinosa
• Second: Antoine Fromentin/Ji Ni (Montreal)
• Third: Yves Crepeau/Manon Dozois (Montreal)

Dangai Shiai Women’s Division:

• First: Joanna Nguyen (McGill)
• Second: Akiko Nakagawa (McGill)
• Third: Henintsoa Rakatomalala (McGill)

Dangai Shiai Men’s Division:

• First: Keisuke Nakajima (McGill)
• Second: Sam Zhou (McGill)
• Third: Trevor Won

Yudansha Shiai Women’s Division:

• First: Rebecca Pomeroy
• Second: Lily Hsin
• Third: Sasha Nanette

Yudansha Shiai Men’s Division:

• First: Antoine Fromentin (Montreal)
• Second: Simon Bruins (McGill)
• Third: Raphael Djinn

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Congratulations to all competitors and a special thank you to the ECNF for being such abiding hosts!

The first Annual Winter Classis Taikai in Montreal was a resounding success!

Naginata Senshu from across Canada brought their best performances to the table with a great showing building up to the World Naginata Championships later this year.

Taikai Results:

Engi:
1st place: Jordan Macklem and Tomas Paolo Almonte
2nd place: Lutan Liu and Abigail Lim
3rd place: Mary-Kate Proud and Mary Phan

Individual shiai:
1st place: Marija Landekic
2nd place: Lutan Liu
3rd place: Tomas Almonte

Team Shiai:
1st place: Team Gabriel Conquer, Andrew Boyd and Tomas Almonte
2nd place: Team Joanna Nguyen, Lutan Liu and Antoine Fromentin
3rd place: Team Keisuke Nakajima, William Choi and Jordan Macklem

Congratulations to all participants and let’s keep the momentum going forward!

The Canadian Naginata Federation is pleased to announce the 1st annual CNF Winter Classic Taikai!
Date: March 16, 2019
Location: Milton-Parc Community Centre, 3555 St. Urbain st., Montreal, QC.
11:30-19:00
Registration Deadline: March 9th
Registration Cost: 25 years and older: $45 CDN
24 years and under: $30 CDN
The tournament will consist of Engi-Kyogi, and both individual and team Shiai-Kyogi.
People of all ranks are encouraged to volunteer as both Shimpan and helpers.
Please contact your Dojo leader for approval to compete.
This is a wonderful opportunity to access Naginata players from across Canada in both a tournament format and social aspect.
Ganbatte!