Judo

You should have seen Faith Joy Okubo‘s face. Teeth clenched, eyes full of passion and concentration. She was holding on for an ippon by pin in the 154-pound division over Pearl City’s Chanel Hunter to lock up her second OIA judo championship Saturday night at the Leilehua gym. Okubo is about to wrap up her career as a tenacious Moanalua judoka and wrestler at next Saturday’s state judo tournament, where she has a chance to finally break through at that […]

Winning three ILH championships is hard to do, but two juniors did it Friday night in judo at Kamehameha. That means the fourth one is out there for the taking next year for Punahou’s Brayden Bella and Mid-Pacific’s Charlize Jasmine Pascual-Tabuyo. Before they think about that though, there is the matter of the state tournament on May 4. Bella has never won a state title. Pascual-Tabuyo’s story is a bit different. She won states two years ago as a freshman, […]

Punahou senior Nicolas Nakaoka got a bit “flippant” Saturday night at the Stan Sheriff Center. The Buffanblu judoka beat Kapolei’s Branden Pagurayan by ippon in 0:48 of the 161-pound final of the state judo championships. And then he did a backflip. That type of celebration is a no-no in judo, and the officials kept their straight faces when it was time to point to the winner. One official approached Nakaoka and told him something. A few seconds later, they declared […]

Kapolei will attempt to win a fifth consecutive boys state title while Pearl City is the defending girls state champion as the Atlas Insurance Agency/HHSAA State Judo Championships go down today at the Stan Sheriff Center. For updated results throughout the day, CLICK HERE. Finals are scheduled to begin around 5:45 p.m. The mats have been cleared and here we go. FINALS MATCHES BOYS 108 (4) Aden Leyson (Waiakea) vs. (2) Keane Escaba (Moanalua) — Escaba, yuko 114 (1) McCade […]

Moanalua’s Noah Wusstig and Mililani’s Mayu Wise are halfway to the career slam and will attempt to win their third state judo titles at the 2018 Atlas/HHSAA State Judo Championships on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center. Wise is the No. 1 seed at 122 pounds and Wusstig is unseeded at 145 pounds after losing in the OIA final to Kapolei’s Rodan Salangdron. Wusstig can become the first three-time state champion from Moanalua since Brady Lafortune finished off a slam […]

Brackets for the 2018 Atlas Insurance Agency/HHSAA State Judo Championships have been released. Boys State Judo Bracket Girls State Judo Bracket Eight of the 20 No. 1 seeds competing in the tournament on Saturday at Stan Sheriff Center were state champions a year ago. Only Mililani’s Mayu Wise is gunning for a third consecutive state championship on the girls side. The No. 1 seed at 122 pounds after beating Roosevelt’s Macy Higa, a three-time OIA champ, at the OIA championships […]

Moanalua senior Amanda Higa climbed back on her judo pedestal Saturday. Higa defeated Campbell’s Chelsea Johnny to win the OIA championship in the 115-pound division at Leilehua’s gym. It was her third league championship to go along with the titles she won as a freshman and a sophomore and the state crown she took two years ago. Unfortunately, she was unable to get the four-year slam. As a junior, she suffered a concussion in wrestling that kept her out of […]

In the heat of a martial arts battle, it’s hard to point fingers and blame only one of the competitors when things break down. It takes two to tango, so to speak. There was an extra-curricular scuffle during the ILH judo championship match at 121 pounds Friday night at Kamehameha and things got heated. ‘Iolani’s Hunter Fujiwara threw Saint Louis’ Tyler Ibarra and apparently won by ippon. But, not so fast. The three referees conferred as Ibarra looked incredulously at […]