Saturday 5th February, saw our Swansea University Karate Club take on Cardiff University in a Welsh Varsity Match. The event was arranged to give both squads some preparation to before the BUCS in March. Both University had large squads at the event. The competition started with Junior grade kata, and a great start for Cardiff taking 3 of the top 4 places, with only Laura England in her first competition preventing a clean sweep of the medals. The senior kata was next up, which saw Swansea take the top 2 positions, with Pete Twibill (Gold) and Emma Powell (Silver).
The Kumite started with the lightweight women, which saw one of Swansea’s more experienced competitors, Jess Forse, take the gold medal, with Kerri Morgan winning bronze. Next up were the heavyweight women, this category was won by another of the associations regular competitors, Holly Carey, Charlie Maling and Emma Powell, won silver and bronze respectively. The first of the men’s events saw Swansea’s Welsh International, Sean Rees, win gold, after a series of assured performances, without needing to hit top gear, Pete Twibill won his 2nd medal of the day, taking the bronze after beating last years BUCS bronze medallist Sam Larcombe in the 1st round. Swansea’s run of gold’s came to an end in the Heavyweight mens, with Cardiff’s experienced Matthew Coope emphatically winning the gold. Ryan Woodward (Silver) and Chris Lawrence (Bronze) kept Swansea in the medals.
To make sure all of the competitors got as many fights as possible there were Openweight categories for the men and women. In the women’s event, Holly and Jess continued their good form from earlier in the day to win through to the final. Both girls, knowing each other very well, started cautiously, Holly scored the first point which saw the fight open up. Holly was triumphant, to take her 2nd gold of the day, with Jess settling for silver. In the mens event Sean Rees was unable to compete due to an injury sustained in the lightweight category. Cardiff’s Matthew Coope, beat Swansea’s Sam Larcombe in the final to win his 2nd gold of the day.
The final events were the team events, as Swansea had 2 male and 2 female teams and Cardiff only one of each a round robin format was used. In the ladies event, Swansea A (Holly Carey, Jess Forse & Charlie Maling) were triumphant, with Holly ending the day undefeated with 3 golds, Jess winning 2 golds and a silver and Charlie 1 gold and 1 silver. The men’s event was slightly closer with Swansea A (Ryan Phillips, Ryan Woodward, Pete Twibill, Dan Kuras & Sam Larcombe) edging Cardiff to the gold.
The event was a great success, with all competitors having a minimum of 4 fights (Holly and Jess had 8 fights each) and gaining some invaluable tatami time. There was a really friendly atmosphere throughout, with the 2 squads being supportive of each other and wanting to do similar events in the future.
Mark McMahon.