The 12th US National Sumo Championships were held this past weekend.  It was originally planned to be held at Muscle Beach in Venice, California but there was a scheduling conflict.   The tournament ended up being held at the Los Angeles Police Academy. 

Andrew Freund decided to compete in the lightweight class, despite having a broken thumb.  He did pretty well, even beating Trent Sabo during the round robin.  Trent came back and beat Andrew twice to win the gold.

All the middleweights were surprised to see Kena Heffernan come out of “retirement” to compete.  He still has a strong tachiai, and plowed through all of his opponents.  My training partner Doug Cochran hurt his shoulder during his first match, but was still able to beat everyone but Kena.  Our other training partner Robert Ashworth placed fourth.

Kelly Gneiting and I knew that one of us would win the heavyweight dividion.  The champion would be determined by a best out of 3 matches between us.  I ended up winning the first 2 matches against Kelly, and dethroning the 3-time heavyweight champ. 

Kena and I were on opposite sides of the openweight bracket.  We defeated all our opponents and met in the finals.  Our skills were nearly identical, but my 50 extra pounds gave me the advantage and I was able to win openweight gold.

Sorry I don’t have any action shots.

2008 US Heavyweight Sumo Champion

2008 US Openweight Sumo Champion

2008 US National Sumo Championships - June 28th, 2008

Men’s Lightweight

1. Trent Sabo
2. Andrew Freund
3. Art Morrow

Men’s Middleweight

1. Kena Heffernan
2. Doug Cochran
3. James Brewster Thompson

Men’s Heavyweights

1. Dan Kalbfleisch
2. Kelly Gneiting
3. Americus Abesamis

Men’s Openweights

1. Dan Kalbfleisch
2. Kena Heffernan
3. Kelly Gneiting

I flew back to Chicago to see The Elvi play a reunion show, their first show back together in over 4 years.  The Elvi performed a hard rocking set with athletic antics and acrobatics.  They are truly an inspiration.  Check them out here: The Elvi

Grand Sumo came to the Los Angeles Sports Arena on Saturday, June 7th and Sunday, June 8th.  I had an out of town wedding to attend on Saturday, but made it back to see the Sunday show.  I spent most of the time backstage with our friend Musashimaru, so I didn’t get any photos. 

Check out the info on the California Sumo Association’s site: LOS ANGELES GRAND SUMO TOURNAMENT