Bikram Yoga NYC Regional Championship
On October 25, the 2009 Bikram Regional Championship was held for the greater NYC area. Find out more:
| The Regional Winners | Photos from the Event | Read Our Event Recap |
The Regional Winners
Men
| 1st Place | Jared McCann |
| 2nd Place | Gary Schall |
| 3rd Place | Luke Strandquist |
Women
| 1st Place | Kyoko Katsura |
| 2nd Place | Zefea Samson |
| 3rd Place | Laura Ferriter |
Photos from the Event
Click any photo enlarge:
Bruce Kessler |
Florence Chen |
Gary Schall |
Jared McCann |
Kseniya Voronin |
Kyoka Katusra |
Laura Firriter |
Luke Strandquist |
Donna on Stage |
Awards |
Awards 2 |
Kyoka Katsura receiving 1st Place |
Regional Winners |
Bikram Competition: Who is a champion?
A yoga champion? Isn’t that an oxymoron? Isn’t yoga about the union of body and spirit, heart and mind? Yes.
But Bikram Yoga is also about striving for mastery — of the self, of the body, of the beautiful postures. The audience at a competition is treated to poetry in motion. The competitors’ skills and love of the yoga is inspiring.
The competition’s grand idea is to inspire. Rajashree Choudhury — a yoga champion who served as a judge at the October 25 event in New York City — noted that seeing someone “better gives willpower.” And the ensuing envy, she said — which she experienced as a child — can inspire dedication, health, a better world. To that end, she and her husband, the founder of the discpline, Bikram Choudhury, are working toward having yoga accepted as an Olympic sport at the 2016 games.
It was indeed inspiring there in the Merkin Concert Hall. Competitors performed five postures from the Bikram series and two of their own choosing. As some three dozen men and women flexed and balanced with shaking muscles and determination, ears were tucked past heels, heads arced backwards until toes covered eyes, entire bodies perched on elbows or fingertips.
The event was a study in the biomechanics of grace. Far from the tumult of winning and losing and egotism, the atmosphere was serene. The silence was such that the click of a pen closing, the snap of a camera, a competitor forcing the air from her lungs, was loud.
The men’s winner, Jared McCann, was clearly the most accomplished of his sex, but a tiebreaker ensued among four women. An improvised final round resulted in a win for Kyoko Katsura, a Bikram Yoga NYC instructor whose popularity was apparent in high-decibel applause. The two will travel to Los Angeles in February to compete in an international tournament.
Please note, however: the happiest competitor was the least skilled. Her optional poses were nothing fancy, her flexibility humdrum. But she was the only one to prance in delight off the stage.
Isn’t fun spiritual? Isn’t accompishment inspiring? Isn’t there something noble in a disciplined striving for a personal best?
