Rainier Cup Lakewood, WA October 7, 2023
This October was the annual Rainer Cup in Lakewood, WA. This is a good-sized tournament and runs four competition mats at a time. This year there were over 514 participants, and it was a log day.
Shipyard Judo was represented by three competitors and two coaches. Sabrina competed in the light-heavyweight brown/black belt division. The mother-daughter duo Maria and Dizzy competed at their first tournaments, both in beginner lightweight divisions. Coaches Mike and Clayton went along to help out.
Dizzy was the first one up. She had four competitors in her division and ended up going 2-1 to win silver. She had two great throws for ippon (full point) in her two victories.
Next up was Maria. Things got off to a rocky start when one of the three competitors in her division didn’t show up. Undaunted, Maria went to play a best of three match with the one person left in her division. Unfortunately, she lost to a pin in her fist match and a throw in her second. The gal she was competing against was also fighting up to the women’s brown/black belt division and almost won a medal there. Not the most successful day, but it was good experience and counts as a second place.
Sabrina didn’t hit the mat until after 5pm. The tournament directors created light-heavy and super-heavy divisions. Normally, Sabrina fights in the heavy-weight division and gives up a lot of weight advantage to her opponents, sometimes close to 100 lbs. This time she was competing against women her own size for a change. Her first match was lost by two half scores. Sabrina rebounded with a huge pin to win her next match. During her third match, she took an elbow to the cheek and eye that swelled up to the size of small apple. She was pinned while she was dazed. For her last match, she ended up getting thrown into a strangulation technique and was forced to submit.
Sabrina didn’t place this year but she learned a lot from her experience.
Congratulations to all three competitors and thank you to our coaches to when along for support.
