Team USA Rocks Russia at the ‘East-West Open’ submitted by SportMartialArts staff writers www.sportmartialarts.com 04/28/2008

Team USA at the U.S. Consulate with Consul General Mary Kruger in St. Petersburg, Russia.

"I feel like a rock star for the first time my 24 years of martial arts", said California's Damon Gilbert. In front of him was a throng of eager young faces all pushing forward in hopes of getting an autograph from one of the members of the U.S.A. Karate team. It was a scene that followed team members throughout the three day East-West Open, Martial Arts Olympics in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 18-20, 2008.

Gilbert, a multiple NASKA and NBL champion furiously signed posters, postcards, scraps of paper and even arms as a never-ending crowd of fans swarmed the team. After the first day it was necessary to set up a table and official autograph sessions for the 15 U.S.A. team members in order to accommodate all the requests.

It was the fourteenth year that a team from the United States had made the journey to Russia to compete at the East-West Open. Led by head coach Tony Abel of Pennsylvania, the team included Gilbert, Hamed Firouzi of Minnesota, Marc Canonizado of Florida, Mark O'Mard of New York, Marissa Mayer of Rhode Island, Regina Thompson of Texas, Daniel Sterling, junior competitors Becca Ross of Florida, Samantha Smith of New England, Tyler Weaver of Colorado, Colby Northcutt, Sage Northcutt, both of Texas, and breaking champion Dan Netherland.

The photo and autograph seekers were well deserved as the U.S. team made history at the event. Extreme forms and weapons were introduced to the Eastern Europeans, who until now had only worked with traditional forms. In fact, the Americans so dominated the extreme forms divisions the promoters found it best to simply make it a demonstration event just to be fair to the other competitors.

Fighting however, was a different story. Proud, strong and skilled, the Eastern Europeans may have shied away from the back flips and jump spins, but they were ready to throw down with America's best in the fighting rings. The male and female American fighters earned the complete respect of their Eastern European counterparts by fighting with heart and determination, winning men's team sparring for the first time in 14 years. Overall, the Americans brought home seven gold medals in fighting and six gold medals in forms and weapons.

The team arrived in St. Petersburg later than planned after their original flights were unexpectedly cancelled and had to be rebooked. This gave them even less time to adjust to the eight hour time difference and prepare for a demo at the U.S. Consulate in front of dozens of television and print reporters. In a room crowded with journalists and invited guests, the team put on an extreme forms demonstration that left everyone wide-eyed and amazed in anticipation of their competition on Friday. The team and tournament were written up on the front page of the St. Petersburg Times sports section and landed on several television newscasts.

Besides jet lag, the biggest obstacle facing the American team was the language barrier. Russia uses a Cyrillic alphabet that can be tougher to decipher than the Sunday Soduku. And finding someone that speaks English is even tougher. Still, the Russians were more than happy to meet the members of the American team and went out of their way to make them feel welcome. Throughout the tournament they held divisions, shifted times and brought over interpreters to go over the rules.

Team USA Kata and Weapons Competitors from left: Samantha Smith, Tyler Weaver, Sage Northcutt, Becca Ross, Daniel Sterling, Marc Canonizado

"When have we ever been to a tournament where absolutely no one speaks English?" exclaimed Damon Gilbert as he tried to make his way around the tournament venue. Just trying to find a bathroom at the stadium was an adventure! But the Americans made do and had a lot of fun at the event where they witnessed some remarkable performances and were hailed as celebrities.

Forms and Weapons: Six Americans represented Team USA in kata and weapons. Not only did they provide excellent performances, they introduced a new concept to the Eastern Europeans - Extreme!

With competitors ranging from 10 years old to their mid-twenties, Samantha Smith, Tyler Weaver, Sage Northcutt, Becca Ross, Marc Canonizado and Daniel Sterling brought the crowd to its feet with their flips and tricks. Forms divisions were structured like a sparring match. Two competitors do their kata, the judges point to the one they like best and that person moves on to the next round. This meant competitors had to repeat their forms several times to get to the final round. Their intense training prior to the trip was key! Becca Ross wowed the audience by performing her bo form three times in a row with no mistakes to take the gold in her division.

In the open divisions, Tyler Weaver and Samantha Smith cleaned up with gold medals in forms and weapons. Ross dominated the teen divisions while Canonizado sailed through the adult divisions. When the dust settled the Americans walked away with six gold medals in six divisions and two silvers (in the divisions where there was more than one American competitor) - undefeated in every division they entered.

Tournament promoter Nikolai Smirnov offered an opportunity for the Americans to showcase their talents with a special demonstration of extreme musical forms. Musical forms are something completely foreign to Eastern European competitors and the division was designed specifically for the American team. Even though the Russians decided to judge the forms, the competitors agreed this would just be a demonstration. They even threw in some rarely seen moves which brought the tournament to a complete halt as almost everyone crowded around the ring to watch. While this was the Eastern Europeans' first taste of extreme, Smirnov hoped it would set a trend and encourage others to compete in this division next year.

Fighting: The American team may have had little competition in the forms and weapons divisions, but fighting was an entirely different story. The Eastern Europeans love their fighting and most every fighter salivated at the idea of facing off against one of the Americans.

The East West Open isn't just a tournament, it's more like a bunch of small tournaments all held at the same time. Competitors could compete in traditional Japanese forms, fighting, Tae Kwon Do, Sanshou, Sam bo, Shin do, kendo, WKU and WKF fighting and a host of others. Just figuring out what division to enter was a feat in itself.

USA Team from left: Hamed Firouzi, Damon Gilbert, Regena Thompson and Mark O’Mard.

The first test was in men's team sparring on Friday night. A team from the United States had not won this division since 1994. With three teams in the mix the rules were simple. Each team would fight the other two teams and the team with the highest total point (after subtracting out the points scored on the team) would be declared the winner. The first match up was Team Russia versus Team USA. The Russian team set the standard by fighting hard, pounding on the Americans at every chance. For teammates Hamed Firouzi, Mark O'Mard and Damon Gilbert it was a bit of trial by fire as they figured out the rules as the fights went on.

The huge crowd was definitely siding for its hometown heroes but O'Mard tuned out their cheers and finished his match tied 3-3. In this style of fighting, and with the tournament overall, only cleanly executed techniques were scored. If they were blocked in any way, or not thrown with conviction, the judges simply ignored them. As such, an entire match could rest on a single technique. Techniques could also be awarded one, two or three points depending on how they were executed and followed up.

Team USA’s Damon Gilbert

The second round pitted heavyweight Damon Gilbert against his Russian counterpart. Gilbert stepped up to the plate and dished out some shots that had his opponent reeling. His aggressive, overpowering style meshed perfectly with the rules of WKU fighting. Knowing that he needed a lead for his team, Gilbert knocked his opponent into submission and outscored him 7-3 putting his team up by four points going into the final round. It seemed to take Hamed Firouzi one fight in each division to get accustomed to the new fighting rules, then adapt like a pro in the finals. Unfortunately Firouzi's first fight left him down 4-1, making the final score 11-10 for the U.S. Luckily Gilbert's intensity had gained enough of a lead to allow the Americans to start on top - with a 1 point lead over all other teams.

The Russians next faced the Azerbaijan representing the Asian part of Eastern Europe. Russia had no problem schooling the Asian team and came out with a substantial lead of 19-2 which meant Team USA needed to outscore the Asians by at least 18 points to defeat Russia for the title.

Firouzi came out much stronger in this second match and far more comfortable in the ring. Speed and foot skills gave him a comfortable 6-1 lead.

Team USA’s Hamed Firouzi

Team USA’s Mark O’Mard

Gilbert was the center of attention in his second round, facing a hotheaded scrapper who was ready to use any means possible to get an advantage over the much larger Gilbert. During one exchange Gilbert's uniform top was practically torn off (much to the delight of his teammates Regina Thompson and Marissa Mayer, I might add). The wily Asian fighter then tried to hit Gilbert late but, being the king of late hits, Gilbert would have none of it. He spent the rest of the round pummeling the challenger into mincemeat. Finally, the Asian fighter attempted to head butt Gilbert and throw another late hit. The referees finally had had enough. A disqualification gave Gilbert an 8-0 win plus five penalty points which were awarded for his opponent's earlier misconduct.

Team USA was only one round away from sealing an historic win and it was all on O'Mard's shoulders. Despite desperate attacks by his opponent, O'Mard held the solid lead, taking the match 7-4 and giving the Americans a one point victory. It was a great win for the American team and the crowd responded in kind, cheering and clapping the well-deserved victory. For the first time in 14 years the “Battle of the Continents” title would head back to the west.

Saturday Competition: Team USA returned to the stadium Saturday for the individual fighting competition in WKU, free style fighting and Shin do. Takedowns, straight, hard shots and power are the name of the game in these divisions. If you're not ready to play for keeps, you might as well stay home.

Team USA’s Colbey Northcutt

Colbey and Sage Northcutt represented the juniors. Colbey, towering at nearly six feet tall, was asked repeatedly to confirm her age. Her height was more than most imagined in a 15-year-old girl. Northcutt needed her size advantage in the girls' free style fighting division where her match went into triple overtime. Although Northcutt hit the much heavier opponent repeatedly, the girl took the punishment, often ending the exchange by jumping Northcutt and hauling her to the mat. The third overtime switched to sudden-death, first point scored wins the match. Northcutt shot off the line with a blitz and reverse punch to win.

Both Northcutts also took to the mat in WKU fighting. Colbey had little trouble adapting to the rules and defeating her challengers to win the girls 14-15 55 kg division. Her wins in this division were decisive and by large margins.

Sage looked spectacular in his first round of WKU sparring, one of the biggest divisions of the tournament. In round two, Sage went face to face with one of Russia's best little guys - Artem Asatzyan. Artem was an experienced WKU fighter while Sage was getting his first taste. It was a great fight though Sage struggled to adapt to the different rules. In the end Artem was able to win with a 3-0 score which, of course, made the Russians go wild but there was definitely a lot of respect from the Russians for little Sage's debut.

Team USA’s Sage Northcutt

Despite a loss in WKU fighting, the most spectacular fighting footage was provided by little Sage Northcutt in the first round of his free style division when in less than 30 seconds he knocked his opponent out with a spin kick to the face. Northcutt narrowly lost his second round due to a penalty but his debut in free style was so memorable that it will go down in the record books.

The adult fighters delivered their share of knock outs and knock downs in the WKU divisions. The women, Regina Thompson and Marissa Mayer, fought first. Thompson had been defeated by a large margin the night before in an exhibition match against one of Russia's finest MMA and WKU fighters. After a night of fuming, Thompson was ready to redeem herself. She began the day by routing Maria Shapovol 8-0 in her first match.

Team USA’s Regena Thompson vs. Russia’s Antonina Novikova

In the championship match, Thompson faced Antonina Novikova, another of Russia's champion fighters. Up by a score of 3-2, Thompson decked Novikova with a right cross that sent her to the mat. Novikova was dazed and shaken up and decided not to continue, giving Thompson the gold in her division.

Team USA’s Marissa Mayer

Tournament rules allowed fighters to fight not only in their own weight class but also in the weight class one weight higher. Maria Shapovol decided to have another go at it in the heavier weight women's sparring division where she faced American Marissa Mayer in the championship round. In her previous match Mayer clocked her opponent with a round kick to the head proving her abilities to the crowd. She followed that with a 5-0 defeat over Shapovol giving the Americans a clean sweep in both women's weight divisions.

Firouzi fought in the lightest weight fighting divisions and his opponents were fast and ready. After a somewhat slow start in men's team sparring the prior night, Firouzi found his element Saturday and was excited about the prospect of hard hitting and take downs. Not one opponent left the ring without getting stung at least once by the taste of a Firouzi right cross and, after the first round, Firouzi wasn't scored on for the rest of the division. Though thoroughly exhausted, Firouzi tried fighting up a weight class but didn't have the energy to defeat his first opponent. He still took the bronze after defeating Roman Bestughtev in the run off match.

In the under 75 kg weight class, Mark O'Mard fought through an injured elbow to narrowly defeat his first challenger 3-2. O'Mard then breezed into the final round with a 6-0 defeat of Eldar Khalilov. His championship match against Zuran Gabeliya proved to be O'Mard's achilles heel. A narrow 3-1 defeat left O'Mard with only a silver medal.

There was palpable excitement surrounding the 80kg and over division. This was Damon Gilbert's ring and the crowd couldn't wait to see what the big man had in store for today's fighters. And Gilbert did not disappoint. In round one, he took on Ivan Semenov. Tall and tough, Semenov was determined to fell the mighty American but Gilbert's speed was too much for Semenov to overcome. Moving around the mat, Gilbert picked his shots and nearly brought Semenov to his knees. Gilbert finished the match with a 7-0 sweep.

It looked like Gilbert was headed for the gold medal stand until match two, when he hit Russian Levov with a nice jab, cross combo that knocked Levov out cold. Controversy ensued. Knockouts are permissible provided the fighter decides to bow out. In this case the medic said that Levov could not continue. The referees wanted to disqualify Gilbert even though they agreed that the techniques Gilbert threw were legal and controlled. Finally, the head of the event listened to the referees' explanation and reversed the disqualification. Gilbert advanced to the final round where he again went unscored on for the third straight time, winning the match 5-0 and taking home another gold for Team USA.

Hamed Firouzi added one more gold to the American's list when he surprised everyone by quickly adapting to WKF fighting which is very different from WKU. Points were rarely called in this traditional Japanese fighting style and only very, very clean, hard and focused shots were considered acceptable for points. After a tricky first match where Firouzi narrowly won (but managed to figure out the rules), he bounced back like a seasoned WKF pro in his remaining matches to win the division.

After Firouzi's final match it was time for Team USA to head back to the hotel for rest, some sightseeing and to pack for the flight home the next day. Exiting the stadium, however, was easier said than done. Hoards of fans swarmed the team once again asking for autographs, photos and just to shake hands.

"The tournament has just been awesome," exclaimed Firouzi as he signed autograph after autograph. Gilbert looked up from his thousandth autograph of the day to note, "we're on rock star status" as he turned away to get back to living it up in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Autograph signing with Team USA

 

IMAC, USA was founded on a simple mission: to help promote peace in the world by fostering a mutual understanding among people of different nations; transcending language and culture barriers utilizing the common bond found in the martial arts. Each year our journey proves to be fulfilling and unforgettable in many different ways. We would like to extend a sincere thank you to the following people who helped to make this year’s trip truly memorable:

A heartfelt thank you to America’s extraordinary 2008 team. We at IMAC, USA strive to select individuals that will reflect the true heart and soul of the American people. You are first class competitors and, a credit to your fellow countrymen. Your humble and benevolent manner, exceptional sportsmanship, and upstanding character are worthy of honor and recognition by your fellow martial artists here in the United States. Continue to raise the bar and set the standard, be the change you want to see in the world. Many thanks for the outstanding memories you have given us.

Mary Kruger, Consul General of the United States in St. Petersburg; Mary Ellen Countryman, Public Affairs Officer of the Consul General; and, staff members of the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia for the generous welcoming reception. We were truly honored by your warm and gracious hospitality; it was one of the highlights of our trip.

Emily Cooper and Jamie Vandermoer at www.sportmartialarts.com, for your outstanding professionalism and dedication to the job; and, for going above and beyond the call of duty. You’ve helped us capture the memories with your outstanding photography and videography; and, your words above will transcend everyone into the middle of the action.

Robert McClory and Nerissa McClory at www.kickshots.com for your outstanding photography of the tournament and the beautiful city and sights of St. Petersburg.

Matvienko Valentina Ivanovna, Governor of St. Petersburg for inviting us to the Governor’s mansion to honor the memory of Samantha Reed Smith ‘America’s Youngest Ambassador’ through our own junior team member Samantha Brianna Smith. At the age of 10, Samantha Reed Smith wished for peace among nations encouraging peaceful relations between the Soviet Republic and the United States. The memory of Samantha Reed Smith serves as a luminous example that anyone can make a far reaching impact on the world we live in; and, affect a difference in the world regardless of their age or level of education. Thank you to President Vladimir Putin and Governor Ivanovna for honoring Samantha Brianna Smith with President Putin’s martial arts uniform. And, above all ~ thank you for hosting this unparalleled and extraordinary international event in your beautiful city.

And, finally a warm thank you to Nikolai Smirnov, IMAC founder and director; his dedicated staff and team of judges; and, to the unsung heroes behind the scenes of the Martial Arts Olympics ‘East-West’ Open. Thank you for your tireless efforts and hard work that allowed us to enjoy this premiere event!

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