BRITISH INTERNATIONAL OPEN 2011
The British Open is an Institution of the Karate Competition Circuit and never fails to deliver the goods.
This year saw competitors from England, Scotland, Rep of Ireland, Romania, Italy, France and Germany. Interesting to see squads from Shikon, AMA, FEKO, BKO, Kyoji Kai (formerly Kaizen) and KUGB on the mats facing each other again. Good to see !
The British squads naturally dominated but the Continental athletes certainly made their mark.
The Kata events were eventful with Hollie Roberts (Shikon) and Jack Dixon, Lee Lamb (AMA) both successfully doubling up and taking medals in both style and open events.
Team golds went to Shikon and AMA in the junior and senior categories respectively.
The kumite saw the usual quality in the junior events but the mens individuals and teams were quite exceptional, both in numbers and quality.
In the final of the mens U65k Stephan Rewohl (Germany , Halle Karate) beat Alex Shaher (Sokudo) , Under 75k Dan Cuthbert (Shikon ) beat fellow team mate Phil Patrick and in the heavy weights Gareth West (AMA) narrowly beat John Anderson (Kyoji Kai) with Gareth going on to take the Open weight section as well.
The male cadet saw Shikon take both gold in the light weight and heavyweight section with Sam Hulbert and Charlie Collins respectively .
Female cadet saw Dani Lester (Shikon) win the light weight and Laura Wheeler (kyoji Kai) take the heavyweight event with an excellent display of skill and determination.
Senior females were a little quiet but Timea Szasz (CSK Zanshin) dominated the U60k with Italian Claudia Alteri (Karate Carzola ) winning the O60k.Kerry McCormack (Shikon)took the Ladies Open beating old rival Helen Hibberd (FEKO ) in the final.
Notable wins in the childrens sections were Aaliyah Fadare in the girls 10-12 O45k.
A double for the Hulbert family with Amy taking the 10-12 U45k.
Liam Powel (shikon) impressing yet again in the boys 13-14 O55k ,
another Gold on his mantelpiece.
Sophie Bottcher (Germany Halle Karate) won the girls 13-14 U50k and one of my favourite fighters Anna James Bott (shikon) yet again came up with the goods in the girls 13-14 O50k.
The veterans saw Eamonn Yore (Kells Karate) take out the opposition in the mens event and Patience Kakitie (Shikon) add another gold to the one she won at last years English in the ladies.
For me the Mens teams were the highlight of the day with the male cadets coming a close second.
In the cadets the strong Shikon team beat allcomers in both sanbon and rotation including a very good Carzola team from Italy.
The mens team finals saw Shikon East beat Kyoji Kai in the sanbon event. John Anderson comfortably beat Dan Cuthbert in the first fight but Shikon recovered with wins from Jason Marquis and Phil Patrick over Carl Smith and Ian Hedges.
In the rotation Kyoji kai took revenge with a 6-5 win over the Shikon team in an excellent and entertaining match. Well done to both teams. The standard in the mens team events was such that the Carzola team from Italy led by Current WUKF World Junior champion Davide Milletti failed to get a medal in either event.
This the first ranking event of the year saw some people move up their respective ranking lists and others move down or even disappear from theirs.
Check out the current lists and lets look forward to the next ranking event the Karate Sport England Open Championships in Loughborough on Sun 17th April.
ALL WELCOME !!!!
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