This was my first year making the journey to New York for the All American Open. I embarked on this trip on Monday June 22, 2015. It was decided early on that my family would accompany me to this tournament and as it turned out my son Brandon was able to compete as well. The actual even was taking place on Saturday June 27th, so this left us plenty of time for sight seeing in wonderful New York City. It really is a busy place unlike no other I have seen. We had a blast touring the city looking and doing as much as we could in the limited time we had. This year, being a World Tournament, this was the last North American Qualifying event for team spots. As well a good chance for fighters to square off with great competitors from around the world. There were people there from Japan, Columbia, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, France, Bolivia, Romania, Poland, USA, and of course Canada. The level of competition was unlike anything I have witnessed before, and was at times truly breathtaking. I was fighting this event in Senior Men Heavy. We had 4 comeptitors in the division from USA, Poland and Russia. I drew the favorite in our division, Lechi Bolathaev, and looked over and saw that his coach was none other than, Lechi Kurbanov. WOW, need I say more. We had a good match, with Lechi going to my head several times, I was able to block a couple of the them but some of course slipped through. I ended up losing in a decision, 3-1, but I was happy with how it went. He was a tough competitor with skills far exceeding my own, but I was able to go the distance. Lechi went on to defeat Roman Wokciechowski from Poland to win our division. This was a great end to a long season for me. I am very thankful to Shihan Stuart and The CKOK for supporting me in all my endevors. Of course to Sensei Brad and my Kyokushin family in Calgary for pushing me, training with me, and helping through everything. As well I would like to thank my wife Stephanie and my son Brandon for putting up with my training schedule, which is as busy as my golf schedule is now. But really for supporting me as I took this journey pushing my body and mind to limits that only Kyokushin Karate can. Doug Shermack
