Fiji have had two days to bask in the glory of their Judo victory in front of their home crowd in the South Pacific Games. But now it is time to get down to some serious fighting as the Oceania Championships swings into action. Riding on the back of the hugely successful Games here in Suva, the capital of Fiji, the Oceania event is being held in the same stadium with a lot of the same competitors. When countries are as far flung as those in Oceania (not one country has a land border with another), and flights are hard to afford for many of the smaller nations, it makes sense to hold the two championships one after the other, the aim being to add Australia's and New Zealand's competitors to the Southern Pacific islands fighters.
Unfortunately it hasn't all worked out as planned and the fighters from two of the most successful nations from the South Pacific, New Caledonia and Tahiti, have had to return home on the planes chartered by their countries for the multi-sports event. In addition New Zealand are fielding an understrength team, saving their big effort for next year's Olympic qualifier. This has meant that the event is almost a two horse race, Fiji against the best that Australia can muster, with a smattering of fighters from other countries. Each country is allowed to field four fighters in each weight so we are likely to see quite a few all Australia or all Fiji finals.
Fiji's strongest fighters, their male heavyeight Nacanieli Qerewaqa and their female -70 kg Sisili Naisiga were both in action on the first day and disposed of their opponents with ease. Qerewaqa had two Australians to deal with and neither fight lasted a minute. Terry Frankcombe was dispatched with a beautiful Ashi guruma and Brett Boxhall, who had defeated Qerewaqa's brother James Takayawa by ippon with a Soto makikomi, was speedily banged over with a sweetly timed switch to Sasae tsuri komi ashi.
Sisilia Naisiga had to overcome three Australians; Janell Shepherd was pinned with Kami shiho gatame in the quarter-final, and Sarah Donegan was also beaten on the ground, this time with Kesa gatame. In the final Naisiga faced Stephanie Topp who had taken out the other two Fijians in the weight with big throws. But she was unable to stand up to Naisigi who felled her with a massive Harai goshi to take the title. Naisigi has now shown that she is a consistent medal winner at this level and it will be interesting to see if she can make any impact on the World stage. Certainly she has the raw power and controlled aggression one associates with the Cuban women but perhaps she is lacking the tactical skills that will only come with experience at the highest level.
In the women's +78 kg the Australians were unable to stand up to the big Fijian women. Both Sisilia Lewamoqe and Ana Naviri produced mighty throws to take them into the final but against each other neither woman could shift the other and the fight swiftly moved through the penalties until Lewamoqe was disqualified. The bronze went to Jessica Malone of Australia who wasted no time throwing her team mate Tracey Jansen for ippon with Uchi mata.
-78 kg saw a break from the Fijian/Australian total dominance as New Zealander Rebecca Finlay made it into the final, narrowly defeating Jeaneen Steel from Australia and throwing Fiji's Elenoa Kurowaqa twice, with Koshi guruma for waza-ari and with Ouchi gari for ippon. In the final she had to face Fiji's Laisa Laveti who had blasted through her half of the draw, throwing Australia's Sophia Dennis for ippon with Maki komi and team mate Ulamila Goli with a massive Osoto gari. Laveti brought Fiji their fourth gold of the day, throwing Finlay with Maki komi for waza-ari and finishing her off with the subsequent pin. Steel and Dennis took the two bronzes for Australia. Dennis is only a green belt with plenty of spirit and looks to be a fighter for the future.
The only other women's category of the day was the -63 kg and ended up as an Australian clean sweep. The winner was Belinda Guidice who knocked out Fiji's Atec Waganivalu with two waza-ari throws and fellow Australian Katherine Brown with an Ouchi gari waza-ari before coming up against Carly Dixon in the final who had struggled on her side of the draw. Their final was very tight with a scraped koka scoring push over counter attack by Guidice being all that separated them at the bell. Alison Newham and Katherine Brown both won their bronze medal fights with hold downs.
In the other men's categories Australia were totally dominant and all three categories, the -100 kg, the -90 kg and the -81 kg, were won by fighters with the surname Kelly! Whether any of them are descended from Australia's famous outlaw Ned Kelly is not yet clear but interestingly none of them are related to each other!
Martin Kelly took the -100 kg title, throwing Fiji's Josu Nabukavisa with a side Laats for ippon in the quarter-final and repeating the same technique on New Zealand's Sydney Manuka in the semi-final. In the final he faced fellow Australian Matt Celotti who had looked impressive in his earlier fights. He had dispatched two big Fijians with huge throws, first Sosive Ukuiviti with Osoto gari and then Nemani Takayawa with a textbook, kata style, standing ippon seoinage. In an exciting final Kelly was always in charge and scored first with a low driving Kata guruma for yuko to which Celotti responded with an Ouchi to leg grab combination. This was turned at the last second by Kelly with Uranage and scored waza-ari. Celotti then pulled back a koka with a neat little Kosoto gari. Growing in confidence Celotti launched a big Uchi mata only for Kelly to ride it, turn it and score the second waza-ari to win the match. The bronzes were taken by Manuka with an ippon Te guruma and Takayawa with a yuko scoring twitch Kosoto gari.
In the -90 kg it was the turn of Gavin Kelly to shine. In the semi-final he threw New Zealand's Shaun Calder with Sode tsuri komi goshi for yuko and polished him off with the subsequent Kesagatame. His opponent in the final, team mate Dane Picken had scored ippon on New Zealand's Mathew Sole with Juji gatame and thrown Tonga's Filim Vainikolo for ippon with Uchi mata. But Kelly made short work of him in the final countering his first Uchi mata attack with a well controlled Te guruma that scored ippon. Calder took one bronze for New Zealand with a Morote gari ippon whilst the other was taken by Fiji's Akuila Nagadru throwing Vainikolo for the full point with a big right Osoto gari.
The last of the men's categories, the -81 kg,was another clean sweep for the professional Australian squad, topped by the third of the Kelly's, Daniel. In his quarter-final he easily dealt with Samoa's James Ah Kui, throwing him for waza-ari with Maki-komi and then Te guruma for ippon. This was followed by a very narrow victory over his unorthodox team mate Priscus Fogagnolo. With his flowing black locks and his dark beard Fogagnolo looks more like a character from a biblical epic than a judo player but he is surprisingly effective with his dropping Kata guruma's and wierd sutemi waza techniques. Several times he came close to scoring on Kelly who ran perilously close to being penalised for inactivity. But despite Fogagnolo's higher work rate there was no score at full time and it was Kelly who pulled out the golden score, a Kouchi gari koka.
Kelly's opposition in the final was his principal domestic rival, Morgan Endicott-Davies who had beaten Tonga's Salesi Akau'ola with a left Osoto gari for ippon and team-mate James Lynch in another golden score fight, eventually winning with Ouchi gari for waza-ari. The -81 kg final was the last match of the day and probably had a place at the World Championships riding on it. A close contest for the first half of the match, Kelly went waza-ari up from a leg grab and finished Endicott-Davies off with a keft handed dropper for ippon as he came rushing forwards at the end. Fogagnola took one bronze with a Mune gatame ippon and Lynch took the other with a massive Habarelli pick up.
Four golds apiece for Fiji and Australia at the halfway stage leaves everything still to play for. But one of the most interesting moments of the first day came as the medals were about to be presented. A total power cut plunged the stadium into twilight and cut out the ability to play recorded National anthems. So we were treated to medal ceremonies in the fast fading light and sung versions (by the teams and supporters) of first the Australian and then the Fijian national anthems. The Australians started well but by the end I think the Fijians won the singing contest. Who comes out top in the Judo remains to be seen!
Simon Hicks |
