The 2016 Ocean State Grand Nationals (OSGN) burst onto the Spring sport karate tournament scene on April 8th – 10th in Warwick, Rhode Island. This event is known for bringing out the top martial artists from the Northeastern United States to Canada to see whose training has paid off over the long winter. This year for the first time OSGN served as a regional qualifier for the WKC world games in Dublin, Ireland.
The action began at 4:30 pm on Friday with a dazzling display of forms from some of the top NASKA competitors of today. Tyler Weaver and Reid Presley put on an outstanding must-see performance to eventually win Team Sync. In case you missed any of the performances on Friday, you can catch all the action on our YouTube channel (sportmartialarts). During the Friday night fights, Team Paul Mitchell bested all other men’s teams to take the Men’s Team Sparring crown.
At the night time finals, the stars were out and did not disappoint. Jake Presley continued in the Presley way by capturing the 13 and under weapons grand championship with Aidan Kennedy as the forms winner. Team Paul Mitchell won even more as Danny Etkin was the 14-17 forms title winner with his partner in crime Aidan Considine winning the weapons title.
Jackson Rudolph did what Jackson Rudolph does best – adding more ‘16 gold to his impressive win streak so far. SMA wonders who will stop him in 2016? Mackensi Emory made a triumphant return winning the Women’s Weapons grands and the women’s forms title. Shahin Jahanvash was the men’s traditional forms winner with Tyler Weaver winning in CMX forms.
Sparring was an exciting event with Justin Ortiz taking on a very tough Kevin Walker for the lightweight grands. At the end of a very entertaining bout, Ortiz managed to secure the victory. Teammate Zsolt Moradi was the heavyweight winner. Nikki Pelland was able to win her first overall grands, defeating a very game Katie Lacy to win the women’s sparring crown.
The 2016 OSGN managed to improve on excitement and efficiency this year. We can only guess as to what great heights that the 2017 OSGN will bring.
