Strong Start to the year by Kendo Club at the 18th Annual Thistle Cup
On 21st September, the Kendo Club participated in the 18th Annual Thistle Cup, where Arthur Zhang and Cosmo Billing came joint fifth place in their respective divisions.
The annual Thistle Cup was originally created to commemorate the foundation of Aberdeen Kendo Club by Kazuo and Etsuko Yamazaki, two Kendo teachers from Japan 20 years ago. This was the 18th rendition of the cup, as two renditions were cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The competition was divided into a few categories:
• Thistle Cup – for those between Shodan (1st Dan rank) and Nidan (2nd Dan rank)
• Seniors Division – for those with Sandan (3rd Dan rank) and above
• Kyu Division – for those without a Dan rank, which is the equivalent of a black belt
• Women’s Division
Cosmo Billing participated in the Shodan/Nidan division to secure a joint fifth place in the quarter-finals. Arthur Zhang, Emily Gorman and Agastyaa Vishvanath all participated in the Kyu Division, where Arthur went into the quarterfinals to secure a joint-fifth place and also got awarded the Fighting Spirit Prize, given for an exceptional performance. This was especially impressive at the award is highly valued in the Kendo community, for excepting effort and spirit in competing.
The crew was also accompanied by their coach Izzy Donaldson and another non-competing member. “It was a great start to the academic year and we will hopefully continue to see this success in our coming competitions”, says Cosmo.
Congratulations to the club for such a strong start to the year. We are excited to see what comes next!