4th INF Championship,

Goodwill tournament and Seminar

September 1~5, 2007, Brussels, Belgium

The International Naginata Federation held its 4th World Naginata Championship in Brussels Belgium on September 1, 2007.  The previous Championships have been: Tokyo in 1995, Paris in 1999, and San Jose California in 2003.  The United States Naginata Federation sent a team to compete in Engi and, Bogu Shiai competitions.  There were two Engi Pairs allow for each of the 12 countries who were participating.  The USA Engi Pairs did not place.  The same result was seen in the Bogu individual matches, though one of the American men, Kevin Saxton, came very close to getting a 3rd place.  The individual Bogu allow three competitors in both men and women competitions.  The Japanese team took first and second and left third for some one else.  Belgium took the women's 3rd and New Zealand took the men's.  The team competition had both men and women teams with Japan in first place and the USA in second. The USA teams both had a Sempo (lead off competitor for the team) from the Japanese Swordsmanship Society : Katie Roche women's team Sempo and Ellery Engala men's team Sempo..

The INF has an unofficial contest that they encourage all member federations to compete in called "Rhythm Naginata".  The definition of this contest is: "2 or more members showing the basics of Naginata for 3-5 minutes to music".  There were 6 teams from the 12 Federations in the INF Championship.  The USA Rhythm Naginata team was 7 members from the Japanese Swordsmanship  Society and 1 member from the Southern California Naginata Federation. 

The results were :

• 1st place :  Belgium
• 2nd place : Japan
• 3rd place   : USA

The other teams were: France, Germany and Brazil.  The USA team used 5 minutes of music from Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Ballet.  The presentation was a shorter version of the Firebird story.  The leader of the good guys was John Prough in white.  The evil wizard was Kevin Saxton from SCNF.  His four hence men were (in order of engagement by the Firebird) Frank Dimarco, Chao I Huang, Cheok Tang, and Ellery Engala.  The Firebird, all in red, was 9 year old Serena Tang.  And the Champion for the good was Katie Roche. 

For more pictures of the championship events click here .

Pictures of the seminar click here

For video of the USA Rhythm click here or this one.