WUKF JUNIOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011
Just when you think it cant get much better than this (ie Lignano). It does !!!
Even WUKF 'new boy' Mr Terry Pottage had to admit that 'it was impressive'!!! And coming from someone who has been there done it and got several t shirts that's quite an affirmation.
Karate England had there biggest ever squad attend this the 2nd WUKF
European Junior Championships in Gyor, Hungary.
A quick flight to Vienna and an hour transfer saw the party of nearly eighty arrive at the Hotel Famulous and prepare for an exciting weekend of top quality karate.
The coaching team of Abdu shaher, Ian cuthbert, Trisha jordan, Julia Heenan and Brad Moore were supported by officials Azad Kumar, Sonia Powell, Mark green, Dave Brashaw and Joanne fisher and an enthusiastic group of parents.
The venue was a huge arena at the nearby University , seemingly a recent build it was a brilliant setting.
The entry was 1490 competitors , 10 tatamis with over 100 officials.
Day One
The first day saw all the kata events and we had the strange
experience of having two favourites for gold in Holly and Mitchell
Roberts. They did'nt let us down with both taking gold in the female
and male cadet shito ryu events respectively. Showing their usual fine
form to the winners rostrum.
Newcomer Sam O Mara has obviously been inspired by Holly and Mitchells success over the last few years and took a well deserved bronze himself in the male cadet wado ryu kata.
In the team kata events Karate England had two teams make the final . The boys and girls cadet shito ryu kata teams. The boys coached by Trisha Jordan won silver and the girls Coached by Phil Patrick took bronze.
In the childrens under 15 years events Emily Valentine picked up two medals , silver in kata and bronze in kumite and Liam Powell took bronze in the boys 13-14 kumite.
In fact the weekend running order had all finals on the Sunday so there was a big pressure on everyone over the weekend to stay focused once they had made the final and then reproduce top form once again on the finals day.
A big ask !!
The last events of the Friday were the team Sanbon events.
We had two teams in both male and female cadet plus a male junior
(18-20) team. The opposition was top notch and although the male cadet
made the quarter finals the only team to get a medal was the female
cadet A team with Shauna Carroll , Maddie Moore , Dani Lester and Anna
Bott.
Day Two
Saturday saw all the individual kumite events and rotation events. It seemed like a big ask but with ten tatamis and 100 officials the schedule ran smoothly and quickly.
Dani Lester took a well deserved bronze in the female cadet U55k but our other two 'big guns' in the female cadets Maddie Moore and Shauna Carroll both went out in the early rounds. A blow to our expected medals tally.
In the male cadet kumite however, despite very large event numbers, Karate England hit pay dirt!
In the male cadet U60k Ryan Correya and Mitchell Roberts were probably
the two lightest of the 47 competitors, fortunately they were in
separate halves of the draw because amazingly they both made the
final. Mitchell s priority had been kata but he has flourished in WUKF
and has adapted nicely to the harder hitting format and is fast
becoming a force in the kumite. Squad mate Ryan with more experience
in the kumite side of things faced Mitchell in the Sunday final, all
the coaches withdrew and let them get on with it. The result was a win
for a very classy Ryan Correya but a well deserved silver for
Mitchell.
In the big boys section Karate England had another two big hitters in
current WUKF world champion Charlie Collins and fellow team mate Adam
Carrigan-smith both WUKF world team champions from last years event in
Brazil.
Although they are both big lads they did seem to be the two smallest competitors in their section , yet again.
Adam battled through various rounds eventually losing to a very strong
Hungarian in the semi final. Charlie had one or two hiccups but oozed
world class as he cruised to the final. Facing the big Hungarian in
Sundays final Charlie went one wazari down , equalised and then went
2-1 down. He pulled it back to 2-2 with another gyakuzuki chudan ,
face punched to go 3-2 up and then attacked with some excellent
footwork and hurt his opponent with a superb left body punch. At 4-2
his opponent threw caution to the wind and Charlie switched stance and
defended with a reverse roundhouse kick to the head. It brought the
house down and also gave Charlie a European title to go along with
his World crown. Congratulations to him!
In the team rotation events the male cadet A team with Charlie Adam and Ryan put the current champions Romania to the sword , beat Italy then got disqualified in the quarter finals against eventual winners Ukraine. The B team with Ben Poulter , Ben Turner and Sam O Mara had better luck winning their pool but losing 9-6 in the semi final against Portugal. But a hugely deserved bronze for the lads.
In the male Junior rotation first round Garrick Eastwood took the Romanian team out single handedly with six straight points in the first minute. The opposition stiffened considerably after that but the boys made the semi final only to lose out to Portugal in a feisty semi final battle.
In the female team rotation the B team of Jordanne Collins , Fern Sugden and Courtney Rivers went out in the early rounds but the A team of Shauna Carroll , Maddie Moore , Dani Lester and Anna Bott stormed their pool to make their final.Remember that Karate England female cadets are current World champions at rotation and they looked it as they swept aside the opposition.
In the final they faced Italy who never really had a chance to get off
their blocks before they were 3-0 down to a barrage of attacks and
counter attacks from the English trio. The match was stopped before
time was up as England gained a six point advantage and the gold went
to England.
With so many areas on the go and a huge number of officials it was
possible to run some Senior International events alongside the Junior
events 3 male and 3 female. We has success there as well with Lee
Willis winning silver in the lightweight and Phil Patrick taking the
gold in the middleweight. Well done to both of them.
Next years calendar looks interesting with trips to Scotland and Serbia but also the introduction of a 'Five Nations League'.
Watch this space
A fantastic event and great weekend from venue, hotel, presentation
the works.
6 Gold. 4 Silver and 9 Bronze.
Sixth place on the medals table
Well done to everyone !
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