On March 3, martial artists from New York and New Jersey braved the cold weather to compete in the annual Colgate Open Martial Arts Tournament. Over 100 competitors of all age ranges competed in a spectacular display of weapon forms, open hand forms, and one-on-one point sparring. Host and tournament director Robert Pinney, who has been in charge of the event for 10 years, was extremely happy with this year’s tournament’s efficiency.

“I’m really pleased with how the tournament ran this year,” Pinney said. “Each year it seems to get smoother.”

Colgate competitors put up a good showing. Senior Shouhei Yamagami collected an impressive grand trophy for Colgate Karate with his weapons form and picked up a silver medal in point sparring. The Colgate Taekwondo Club also performed well. In point sparring, senior George Plummer received a silver medal first-years Justin Alimaras and Mike Fingerhut all collected bronzes. Colgate continued to place in the empty hand forms competition. Sophomore Erin Scott and first-year Dana Curtis also won bronze medals, continuing Colgate’s excellent performance.

Despite these impressive results, the consensus is that Colgate martial artists are far from performing to their full potential. However, there is still plenty of time for the young team to get the gold in the future.

“It was my first tournament, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Alimaras said. “I had fun though.”