C.I.K.A EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS DUBLIN.
COACHES REPORT:
SQUAD
Ruby Davies, Mackensie Aitchison, Amelia Gregory, Iestyn Williams, Harrison Williams, Josh Dwyer, Megan Taylor, Becky Hole, Ellis Southall, Morgan Phillips, Nic Hole, Keiran Hooper, Jordan Harris, Jordan Hopkins, Anthony Bridge.
COACHES
Nigel Taylor, Gary Southall, David Roberts.
The Bushi-Kai squad arrived at the National basketball arena Dublin at around 10 am, it was packed with athletes from all over Europe. It was a little bit daunting for some of our younger competitors who had never been exposed to this level before. The seniors and coaches took them through warm up and it wasn’t long before the action began, first up was Ruby who displayed a calm and mature performance to claim our first medal of the day and take a bronze in a huge category. Next up was Mackensie in probably the biggest category of the day, after winning 3 fights he was unlucky to go out in the last 8 to the eventual winner from Belgium.
Then it was Amelia’s turn and although she lost her first fight she performed really well against an experienced competitor from Poland and showed some encouraging signs for the future. Last out of the under 14 categories was Iestyn who fought really well and was just pipped by the eventual winner from Ireland, unfortunately the under 14’s had no repecharge, but Iestyn had a 2nd chance in the team event joining up with his team mate, he was outstanding and they lost to the Belgian team in the final gaining a silver medal.
Josh was our next competitor and started a little slow leaving his opponent go 5 points clear, then he hit his stride and took the fight to the wire just losing by 1 point, his opponent made it into the final so Josh came back in the repecharge and did superbly to win the bronze medal.
Harrison was up next and dominated his opponent from the start, but was unlucky with some decisions and ended up losing narrowly to a good opponent.
Under 18’s next with both Megan and Becky fighting really well against opponents from Romania, Ireland, England and Holland. Megan taking the Silver medal , and Becky taking the Bronze. It was then the turn of Ellis and Morgan both displaying excellent skill levels to produce some of the best fights of the day Morgan just losing in the final to take the silver medal and Ellis winning the repecharge final against a fighter from Finland to take the Bronze.
Last events of the day were the seniors, we had 4 competitors in the lighter weight and they had some top quality opposition, Keiran dug in and never gave his opponent any time just losing out by 1 point, Nic was typically tenacious and was all over his opponents scoring some great techniques and was unlucky to go out in the last eight. The 2 Jordans were both on fire, scoring at will with some quality karate but unfortunately met each other in the last eight. After a great fight Harris just did enough to pip Hopkins to victory and went on to take the silver medal, Losing to the talented Belgian in the final. Hopkins however come back in the repecharge to take the Bronze. In the heavier weight was Anthony who was in fine form going through the rounds and getting stronger, much to all the squads despair though he was cruising the semi-final only to catch the Italian fighter with a hard punch to the face, he was stopped carrying on by the medics so Anthony was disqualified, he had to pick himself back up to win the repecharge final and take the bronze.
The last event of the day was the senior mens team Anthony, Jordan Harris and Jordan Hopkins lined up against other teams from all over Europe, the boys probably kept their best karate for this event going through the full repertoire of techniques to win an outstanding gold medal.
The final medal tally was 1 Gold, 4 Silver and 6 Bronze, the 3 coaches were very pleased with the squad’s performances, discipline and attitude in this very high quality event.
