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The 24^TH ANNUAL OCEAN STATE  
GRAND NATIONAL KARATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
by reporter Mark Huard

The 24^th Annual Ocean State Grand National Karate Championships took place at both the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick, RI and the Convention Center in downtown Providence, RI.  Don and Christine Rodrigues along with the Don Rodrigues Karate Academy promoted the event.  The Ocean State Grand Nationals is one of the largest and most prestigious sport karate events held in the world. 

The event was KRANE AAAAA+ NASKA “AAAAA World Rated as well as WAKO USA AAAAA Rated. Over 15,000.00 in cash prizes and over 2,500 awards were given out at this event. The extravaganza of amazing competition started promptly at 5:00 p.m. on Friday at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Warwick, RI. The hotel was sold out and filled with amazing martial artists from all around the world.  It was a very exciting night of competition for all!  

The Ocean State attracted many of the world’s best teams such as Team Straight Up, Team CJB, J Phillips, Team Victory, JPM, Team Sidekick, Studio Unis and many others!  Just over 1,100 competitors from all over the world were in attendance at his year’s outstanding event.  

Competitions in Team Synchronized Forms and Demo Team Forms, Black Belt Adult and Junior Tag Team Fighting followed. There were also top athletes competing in weapons, open forms traditional forms and musical forms.  

This has always been and will continue to be one of the most organized and well ran events in the country.  

Some of the Friday night highlights include but are not limited to Mike Welch and Matthew Caito are now on Team J. Phillips.  Rudy Reynon and Caitlyn Dechelle are now members of Team Paul Mitchell.  I would think this should make for some very strong junior team competition for some time to come.  

On Saturday a.m. everyone headed over to the Providence Rhode Island Convention Center right in the heart of downtown.  The tournament started promptly at 9:00 a.m. and ran smooth as clockwork right through all the eliminations.  We really enjoyed ourselves moving around from ring to ring watching and taking photos of some truly amazing young martial artists.  Congratulations to the fine ring coordinators and their outstanding organization to make this one of the most organized events that I have ever attended in many years.  

Immediately after the eliminations, special guest and Action Film Star Cynthia Rothrock arrived at the convention center for some photo shoots with schools that brought 10 or more competitors to the OSGN.  

The Ocean State Grand Nationals Night Time started at 7:30 p.m. at the RI Convention Center.  The stage was in the center of the room with a full size video screen in the background to make sure everyone could get close to the action of the evening. The event started off with an awesome demonstration by the World Known KICK Team.  They are one of the greatest and most respected demonstration Teams in the world today.  

Then it was time for the first division of the night. That was the 13 & under forms grand championship. Rudy Reynon, Nicole Costales, Scotty Zimmerman and Caitlin Dechelle. 

Wow can you imagine, yes this was unreal.  All these competitors put on an amazing show for everyone.  When all was said and done, Team Paul Mitchell’s Caitlin Dechelle took the title.  

The 2^nd category of the evening was the 14-17 forms grand championship.  World known competitors Richie Bichara, Al Szfranski and Matthew Emig put on a stage show for all.  Matthew Emig ended up taking the title.

  Now that things were rolling strong and the competition was tough, it just got even tougher.  The 13 & under weapons competitors took the stage.  The amazing Max Ehrlich, Caitlin Dechelle and Rudy Reynon performed some very sharp forms.  Reynon ended up with the title after showing off his highflying Kama form.  

The 4^th championship of the night was the 14-17 weapons grand championship.  Matthew Emig returned on stage vs. Ross Levine, and Teri Jacoby.  This was quite a show.  Congratulations to Matthew Emig was showed off his truly awesome nunchuk’s form and won his second title of the night.

There was a special demo by the American Kenpo International group.  At this time some special announcements were made from OSGN Promoter Don Rodrigues.  Tori Andreozzi, sister of Robbie Andreozzi took the stage.  At this time some truly caring people on Team Sansei presented a special donation.  Thank you to Team Sansei, whose students raised $1,200 to help the Tori Andreozzi family.

  Now, before the competition got underway again, a movie trailer of the movie Sci-Fighter was shown on the big screen for everyone to see.  Movie stars Cynthia Rothrock and Christine Rodrigues were called on stage to view the fight scene on the big screen.  

The Women’s fighting was next to get underway.  Anna Frakowiak and April D’Allessandro.  This was a great match with Frakowiak winning the title.  

The women’s forms division was an extremely competitive division with some of NASKAS most amazing.  Casey Marks, Lauren Kearney, Stephanie Flowers and Ming Li all performed.  Yes, this was amazing!!!  Casey Marks won the title!  

Now, it was fighting time.  The KRANE Heavyweight Tag Team Title took place. Team Paul Mitchell’s Jesse Goldberg and Chris Rodrigues against David Bossinette and Bernard Paquet from Studio Unis.  It was a good battle.  Team Paul Mitchell ended up taking the title 10-6.

The men’s fighting grand championship was Raymond Daniels and Jason Tankson-Bourelly.  This was a battle for sure.  Bourelly won 6-4 with a kick in the final seconds of the match.

In the adult weapons grand championship Jon Su, Casey Marks, Jon Boyd and DX took the stage.  Wow, this was an amazing show!  Jon Boyd received three 10’s but DX got four 10’s winning the title.

The WAKO World Title between Jason Tankson- Bourelly and Gregorio Di Leo was now happening.  Scheduled for 5 two minute rounds, and would be stopped if a 15 point spread was reached.  After the 4^th round Bourelly was up with a ten-point lead.  At this time Bourelly had a cut on his left eye from a forearm.  The final score was Bourelly 31 and Di Leo 16.  This was some awesome fighting.

The last division of the night was the men’s forms grand championship.  Wow, Gabe Reynaga returned to competition, John Su, Anthony Atkins, Steve Terada and DX.  Yes, this was unreal.  DX wins the title with three 10’s.

The Ocean State Grand Nationals was one of the best ran tournaments that any competitor on the circuit could attend. We truly enjoyed this weekend and plan to return for years to come.  Congratulations to Don and Christine Rodrigues on a great job.  We will see you at the 2005 Ocean State Grand Nationals.