Hamden, Connecticut www.thehamdenjournal.com November 18, 2011
Page 15
On October 27, 2011, the Academy of Kempo Martial Arts in
Hamden held a special awards ceremony for its ninth annual Champion of the Week
Tournament. The tournament was an eight-week program that started on July 16,
2011 and ended September 10, 2011. At this tournament, the competitors had to
demonstrate their self-defense concepts within their sparring techniques. This
tournament was designed for the students to be able to break the barrier between
the sport end of the martial arts and reality. However, any competition that has
rules or regulations is not true reality, but, this type of sparring helps the
students get closer to reality without injuries. The competitors sparred each
other in a weekly tournament class; within this tournament class, the competitor
had to successfully carry out that weeks’ self-defense concept. At the end of
each tournament class there was one Champion for that week. That Champion was
awarded a trophy for being that weeks’ tournament Champion, but to be able to
keep the title of Champion and the trophy the competitor had to successfully
defend his\her title at the following weeks’ tournament class. At the end of the
eight weeks, the person who won the most Championship bouts was honored with the
title of Grand Champion of the Summer 2011.
There were two divisions, the
children’s division and the beginner adults/junior adults division. In the
children’s division:
Jonathan Brown
and Tyler Brown (both from Hamden) were one time
Champions. Gabriel Ciarleglio (from Hamden) was a five time Champion earning him
the title of Grand Champion of the Summer 2011. In the beginner adults and
junior adults division, Ziael Aponte (from New Haven) was two time Champion, Ben
Hawkins (from Hamden) was one time
Champion and Cazimir Bzdyra (from West Hartford) was five time Champion earning
him the title of Grand Champion of the Summer 2011.
For more information, visit www.academyofkempo.com or call 203 288-9990.
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