Welsh Bushi-Kai took a small squad of 11 to the 2012 BKF 4 Nations Championships in Glasgow on the Jubilee weekend. Bank holiday traffic meant the squad had a near 12 hour drive in the mini bus. This year the championships were being held over 1 day (rather than the usual 2) which left the coaches and competitors expecting a very long day as there were 801 entries. Kumite started about 45 minutes later than scheduled, and thanks to the hard work of the referees and officials in attendance, the categories did not fall any further behind schedule, with the day finally coming to an end at just after 7.30pm.
The younger members of the squad were 1st up. James O’Leary was 1st to fight, having just moved into the U12’s category he fought well, losing out in the 2nd round to eventual silver medallist, unfortunately there was no repercharge for the non WKF (u14) categories. Morgan Phillips, another to have just moved up an age category, was next to fight, despite being unwell, Morgan dominated his opponent winning 7-0 in the first round, and looked like he’d have a real chance of finishing in the medals, unfortunately he had to withdraw as his illness worsened.
Megan Taylor, in the U12’s girls was next to fight, despite being a good foot shorter than most of the girls in her category Megan fought with great determination, trailing by 2 points with just seconds to go Megan landed a head kick that could have seen her win the fight, however, the kick was deemed to have made contact, meaning Megan was penalised and ended up losing the match.
Jack Jones and Morgan Evans were the last to compete in the children’s categories in the boys U14 +45kg. Both boys fought well, but were unable to progress through to the later stages. Despite losing to the eventual winner there was no repercharge for Morgan at this event.
Tom O’Leary & Kieran Hooper were both competing in the Male Cadet -70kg category, Tom was 1st to fight, narrowly losing to his Scottish opponent, who unfortunately lost in the semi final and denied Tom the chance of returning in repercharge. Kieran won a very tight 1st fight, on flags, before losing out against an England international in the semi finals.
Kieran had one more fight for the Bronze medal, and pulled off what is surely the best performance of his short competition career to win the match 7-0! Our 1st medal of the day.
Amy Nicholas was next up in the Junior Female -59kg category, which had some very strong opposition. Amy made a slow start but soon picked up the pace, before losing to the eventual winner in the semi final, she bounced back strongly to win the bronze through repercharge.
The senior categories got underway around 5pm, with Holly Carey (Female +68kg) 1st on to the mat, she made a very strong start and was too fast for her 1st opponent to handle, after this she was full of confidence winning through to the final without conceding a point. The final started off quite cagey, with both girls keen to test the other early on, an interruption due to kids running through the area to get their medals saw the match switched to another area with 30 seconds gone and the scores level at 0-0. As the match resumed Holly quickly went through the gears to score 8 unanswered points to take the gold medal (and British title) with 1 minute 30 seconds remaining in the match.
Jordan Harris was next up, in his 1st major tournament since turning 18, has proved many times that he was one of the best Juniors (U18) in world karate, and was keen to show he will be a force to be reckoned with in the Senior categories. He had a very tough 1st match against the reigning British champion, but showed great speed and skill to be leading the fight by 1 point going into the last 10 seconds, unfortunately a small lapse in concentration saw his opponent equalise with just 2 seconds remaining – the match was to be decided by the referee and judges (as there were only 3 judges plus the referee, if the flags were even the referee would have the casting vote), unfortunately for Jordan the flags went 2-2, with the referee preferring his opponent, his opponent couldn’t repeat last year’s winning performance, losing out in the semi final and therefore denying Jordan a place in therepecharge. Mark McMahon was the last to fight, winning through to the final with some solid performances, unfortunately Mark was unable to match Holly’s gold medal winning performance, having to settle for the silver medal.
Overall 4 medals and 1 British Champion – and a great weekend enjoyed by all!
Videos to be added to our YouTube Channel later this week.