The state titles were held across two days with individual events on Saturday and team events on Sunday.

Twelve members from Ballarat’s club were involved.

In the individual Kyu events, which are below black belt, Ballarat’s Eitan Daniel and Marc Veenstra both made their way through the early matches and improved as the morning progressed.

They found themselves facing each other in the quarter finals, with Daniel finishing in second spot and Veenstra in equal third.

In the afternoon, Ballarat’s Tarl O’Mara fought through to the finals in the Dan competition, which is open black belt, and finished in third behind two highly-fancied competitors.

On Sunday, Daniel and Veenstra led newcomers Leo Liu and Andrew Thurgood in their first major tournament. The team fought well but did not reach the finals.

In the women’s Dan team event, Ballarat’s Cassie O’Mara led her team to second place. In the men’s Dan team, Ballarat’s Gary Oliver, O’Mara, Ryan Oliver, Lockie Webb and Brett Jeffreson fought well and easily defeated the Tora Kendo Club team in the opening round.

Eventually Ballarat lost to Melbourne Budokai but achieved equal third place.

At the presentation of trophies, Cassie O’Mara and Liu were awarded fighting spirit awards. Only four of these awards were handed out over the two-day tournament.