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Maui Ki-Aikido presents Shinichi Suzuki Sensei Ki-Aikido Youth Award

Kai Frazier (from left), Naomi Farnsworth, Reece Ugalino and Brianna Leval are shown at a Aug. 31 award ceremony for winners in the Maui Ki-Aikido Youth Taigi Competition.

Twenty-seven Maui Ki-Aikido children and teen students participated in the 2018 Youth Taigi Competition Aug. 18 at the Shunshinkan Dojo in Wailuku. Winning “Overall Best Pair” for completing a series of adult-level aikido arts with the most points were Brianna Leval, 17, and Reece Ugalino, 16, both of Wailuku. The win also confers on them Maui Ki-Aikido’s 2018 Shinichi Suzuki Sensei Ki-Aikido Youth Award, which will give each of them an all-expense-paid trip to Japan in October to train in a five-day seminar at Ki-Aikido headquarters.

Winning separate awards in the adult arts division of the Taigi Competition were

Kai Frazier and Naomi Farnsworth, both 15, who practice at Maui Ki-Aikido’s Upcountry Dojo.

The children’s division Overall Best Pair were Leila-Rose Kiaha and Raje Bluml, both 10.

The annual Suzuki Sensei Youth Award was created in 2003 to honor the founder of Maui Ki-Aikido, Shinichi Suzuki Sensei, who died in 2009, for his dedication and outstanding leadership in the development of aikido in Hawaii and for his then-50th year of teaching at the Maui dojo. As of this year, Maui Ki-Aikido will have taken 11 teens to Japan for the international aikido camp.

In addition to the criterion of Best Overall in the adult arts division of the Taigi Competition, winners of the Youth Award are students who show a strong level of interest and effort in training and a respectful and supportive attitude toward their dojo, their teachers and their fellow students.

More information about the youth and adult programs of Maui Ki-Aikido can be found at mauiaikido.com or by calling 244-5165.

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