Posted on: Friday, October 15, 2004
NEIGHBORHOOD ATHLETES
Heffernan aims at sumo title
Advertiser Staff
After winning the U.S. National Championship last month, Hawai'i sumo wrestler Kena Heffernan will compete in the World Championships Saturday and Sunday at Riza, Germany.
"I'll definitely be an underdog," the 31-year-old Heffernan said. "But I love it. I love being the darkhorse. I'm going to do my best and then some."
Heffernan is coming off a victory in the open division at the U.S. National Championships on Sept. 18 at the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
"I wrestled guys two or three times my weight," Heffernan said of the tournament. "They usually outweigh me by 200, 300 pounds. I wrestled about 12 times during the one-day tournament. It was boom, boom, boom."
Heffernan has recovered from a broken left arm suffered at the World Games in Akita, Japan in 2001. The next year, he won gold in the open division at the North American Championships. He's also won gold medals in the middleweight division.
Heffernan began practicing sumo at age 12 as an off-season sport between baseball and football. At that time, his father, Roger, brought Kena and younger brother Jacob along to join him at an O'ahu Sumo Club practice.
Heffernan, a state champion wrestler while attending Punahou, teaches middle school at his alma mater, and also coaches wrestling and pole vaulters at the school. He graduated from Yale in 1996 with a degree in biology and also played football there.
Heffernan, who is 6 feet and 250 pounds, will compete in the open division at the World Championships. Heffernan is actually a middleweight, which is under 253 pounds, but competes in the open division.
Kena Heffernan
