WKGB WELSH OPEN KARATE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2011
Sunday saw a realtively small Bushi-Kai of 26 travel to Cardiff for the final WKGB event of the year – the Welsh Open Karate Championships. This was the largest Open Championships for a number of years, with close to 450 competitors coming from all of the Home Nations, Republic of Ireland, France, Belgium, Russia and beyond.
After the Kata events had finished Teams were next up, with Senior Men first up. There was a strong field which included 2 Bushi-Kai teams and 2 from our good friends and fierce rivals, the WKU (Western Karate Union). Good early performances from both Bushi-Kai and WKU teams saw all 4 teams from the 2 associations making it through the semi finals. The 1st Semi Final saw WKU “A” narrowly defeat Bushi-Kai “B” (Greg Ryan, Chris Noble, Ryan Phillips) 2 fights to 1. Bushi-Kai “A” (Anthony Bridge, David Godfrey, Jordan Harris) defeated WKU “B” 2-0, to set up yet another final against WKU “A”. As always, this was an extremely close match, with Bushi-Kai winning 2 fights to 1, to add the Welsh Open title to the Welsh Closed title they won in April.
Next up were our Senior Ladies team, who were looking to emulate their male counterparts, in winning both the Welsh Closed and Open titles in the same year. Unfortunatley due to injury Jess Forse was unable to compete, so Sammi Scott (WKK) stepped in to fight with Holly Carey & Amy Nicholas. Bushi Kai started well, beating a very strong Combined Services team, and before long found themselves in the semi finals against the WKU. This was a very close match, with Holly Carey coming back from one point down in the last 20 seconds to win by 4points, before Amy Nicholas (still just 16!) stepped up to fight one of the best female fighters in Britain in recent years, Sarah Clarke (current Enlgish and British Champion), Amy fought brilliantly giving Sarah a very tough fight before losing by 1. Sammi won the final fight to see the girls progress to the final, where they faced a very talented Toyakwai team featuring 3 England Squad members. Unfortunately the girls lost 2 fights and drew 1, so took the silver medal – a great achievement for such a young team.
The first Junior event was the U10 boys team (James O’Leary, Tom Hole, Ewan Albright (VGKO), Ieuan Rolls), I cannot remember the last time this team has lost an U10 event, having already won the Welsh Closed, Junior Welsh Open & British titles this year. Once again the boys performed to the best of their abilities, not losing a single match in any round before winning the Gold medal.
Unfortunately the U12 Boys couldn’t quite match the achievements of their younger team mates, with our “A” (Jack Furse, Morgan Phillips, Keiran Nicholas) & “B” (Morgan Evans, Ellis Southall, Aled Hopkins) teams fighting through several rounds before taking the Silver & Bronze medals respectively, once againshowing our strength in depth at this age.
Next up were our Girls U12 team (yet another team who are the current Welsh Closed Champions), unfortunately due to holidays the girls were one fighter down, meaning Megan Taylor and Rebecca Hole had to win all of their fights. They fought well, before just missing out on the final and taking the Bronze medal.
Our U14 boys team also only had 2 competitors, Jack Jones and Ashley Lewis, both boys fought well winning through to the semi final, unfortunately this was as far as they would go, winning a bronze medal.
The last of out teams saw Tom O’Leary, Kieran Hooper & Nic Hole, make up our U16 team – in a very strong field the boys were unlucky to face the eventual winners in the semi final, and therefore having to settle for the Bronze.
As the team events finished, our 9 teams had won an incredible 9 medals (2 gold, 2 silver, 5 bronze) – not a bad start to the day. Now the long wait for our seniors began!
All of our competitors were in confident mood following such strong performances in the team events, and it wasn’t long before our first medals in the individuals came. In a very large field of over 30 in the U10 boys, Tom Hole and James O’Leary progressed to the semi finals to face each other, with James winning on this ocassion, progressing to meet Ewan Albright in the final, a fight he narrowly lost. James – SIlver / Tom – Bronze.
Unfortunately our U12 boys were unable to add to the medal tally, with 5 out of 6 falling at the quarter final stage.
In the U12 girls (+35kg) both Megan and Becky were hoping for a repeat of the Welsh Junior Open Final, where they fought each other. The girls fought well and got through to the semi finals, with both losing out to very strong English girls, and each winning a bronze.
Ashley Lewis was next on to the mat in the U14 -55kg category, facing a much larger Russian boy in the 1st round, Ashley won through despite taking a lot of punishment from a very aggressive opponent, he then progressed through a couple more rounds before losing the semi final and taking the bronze medal.
Our first individual Gold medal was won by Jack Jones in the U14 +55kg category, Jack had some tough fights, eventually beating a Scottish Competitor in the final.
As we moved onto the Junior (16/17yrs) and Senior events we had won 3 Gold, 3 Silver, 7 Bronze medals and still had many medal prospects. In the Junior Male -68kg , Jordan Harris fought superbly as is now expected, defeating, English, Scottish and Irish opponents on his way the final, before losing to an England International in a very close fight.
Amy Nicholas, buoyed by her strong performance in the Senior ladies team also took a silver medal in the Junior Female -59kg, like Jordan losing a closely fought final to an England International.
In the senior events, we took Gold & Bronze in both the Men -75kg category and Mens +84kg category, with only the draw preventing Gold & Silver medals in both (our fighters met each other in the Semi’s). In the -75kg event, Anthony Bridge and David Godfrey who meet so often eased through the early rounds before meeting each other in the semi final, with David winning the fight in extra time to progress to the final where he took gold.
The final event to start was the Mens +84kg where it had been a long wait for Mark McMahon (who didn’t fight in the team event to concentrate on coaching our numerous teams). This didn’t seem to affect his performance as he progressed to the semi finals where he faced team mate Greg Ryan, with Mark winning the fight and progressing the final where he would win the final medal of the day by taking the Gold.
5 Gold, 5 Silver, 11 Bronze – a great success once again for the association. A big thanks to Gary Southall, Mike O’Leary and the senior fighters who helped coaching throughout the day and kept spirits high during the long waits!!
