UKF INVITATION - DONEGAL R.I.
Only a small squad of competitors travelled this year to Burnfoot,
Donegal in Rep. of Ireland , usually the competition run by Sensei Columba McCloughlin and the Ulster Karate Federation attracts a fairly large contingent from Shikon but this year it was only one week before the Karate Sport England Open Nationals and most people felt that the events were too close for comfort.
Nevertheless Shikon Coach Ian Cuthbert took five of his own club fighters to support the event and it was good to hook up with old friends like Dave Brashaw, Patsy Whelan and Joe Smith.
The Shikon squad consisted of Charlie Collins (WUKF World cadet champion), Shauna Carroll (WUKF European cadet champion), Jamie Carroll (WUKF European Cup champion ) and Liam Powell (English Champion), along with these four went a young brown belt Mairead Ladbrooke on her first trip away from the Shikon fight factory. A small squad, but more than competent.
Not only was the event attended by large numbers of both Republic and Northern Ireland teams there were also squads from Romania, Hungary and England (including Barry Nash`s Heian Ryu).
Also present were the General Secretary of the WUKF Mr Liviu Crisan and the WUKF World Chief Referee Mr Sever Cucu.
In the kata Liam and Charlie both won their age sections and Mairead
took bronze in the 10-11 girls.
In the kumite Mairead, despite being the smallest in her category, battled past an array of bigger girls to win gold, and this on her first International trip.
Old hands Jamie Carroll and Liam Powell both competed in the 13-14 boys section, they eventually met in the final with Jamie coming out on top with a cagey 1-0 victory.
Shauna Carroll coming back from injury looked like her old self,
demolishing the opposition in the female cadet section with a
varied and very confident repertoire of techniques.
Charlie Collins took the mat in the male cadet and almost repeated
this feat, looking every inch the World Champion that he is,
unfortunately in the final whilst leading 3-0 against the Hungarian
he made excessive contact and was quite rightly disqualified, so had
to settle for silver.
In the teams Charlie, Shauna and Jamie took Gold in the cadet mixed team whilst Charlie, Liam and Jamie also took gold in the male cadet team rotation.
It was interesting watching the Romanian National senior team attending as a warm up for the forthcoming WUKF World Senior Championships in Lignano, Italy. They dominated the senior kumite events with an entertaining display of excellent footwork from the Christophe Pinna system. They looked very sharp and confident and will undoubtedly provide some superb opposition to our own National team next month.
Total medal haul was 7 Gold 2 Silver and 3 Bronze. Well done to all of the squad and also to Sonia Powell who officiated as our resident Karate Sport England referee.
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