WKU Invitational Karate Championships
2009-12-06
The SKA Karate Team travelled to Weston-super-Mare on Sunday 6th December 2009 to compete at the WKU Invitational Karate Championships. The whole team were finally back together after a long time and they were all on form and hungry for medals! 9 children competed, including first timer Cavan Cook who is only a white belt but has a natural flare for kumite and maybe kata later on.
The day kicked off with the individual Kata and the only gold we missed out on was from bronze medallist TONI SHERING who was very annoyed with herself for missing out half of her kata, but still only lost 2-1 in the 9yrs and under, 5-4th kyu kata! 7yr old LEWIS HOLMES won the 9yrs and under, up to 6th kyu kata by a huge point margin after performing an outstanding Pinan Shodan. Older brother MICHAEL HOLMES, age 8, also claimed gold in the 9yrs and under 3-1st kyu kata without dropping a flag.
In the mixed 10-15yrs kata, 10yr old KATIE PHARO claimed gold in the 5th-4th kyu section without dropping a flag throughout all 3 rounds. All the other girls were in the same section and had Bethany and Ellie not met too early in the draw, SKA could have claimed all 4 podium positions. They all had 4 or 5 rounds each and SIAN BARTON (11) and CHLOE PHARO (12) knocked out some strong competitors on the way to meeting each other in the semi final. It was Chloe who went through to the final this time and Sian won a well earned bronze. ELLIE BARTON (12) and BETHANY SCOULDING (12) met in the quarter final which left Bethany medal less and Ellie made it to the semi final where she convincingly won a place in the final. In the final both girls performed remarkably well with Chloe taking gold on a split decision and Ellie took silver.
The team kata was next and this is a bit of a sore subject! It was an open age, open grade section and in the first round, which was the semi final, ELLIE BARTON, SIAN BARTON and CHLOE PHARO performed possibly their best Unshu to date. After their opposition performed Pinan Sandan the girls were disqualified for not doing a pinan!!!!! Totally the coaches fault for not reading the rules but who would have thought this would be the case? Also the girls were not told when registering which is unfortunate. The coaches felt bad for the girls as they were well on track to win gold!
The kumite was next and LEWIS HOLMES and CAVAN COOK both competed in the 7yrs and under kumite and the shobu jukuren events. Lewis won all 4 kumite rounds to take gold and also all 5 shobu jukuren events to make it triple gold! Newcomer Cavan followed Lewis' lead very well and considering it was his first competition and he was extremely nervous, he did tremendously well to win bronze in kumite and silver after meeting Lewis in the final of the shobu jukuren.
The other seasoned fighters all did brilliantly. MICHAEL HOLMES and TONI SHERING both won gold in their sections after some extremely challenging rounds. KATIE PHARO won the gold in her section after 4 clean wins. The other girls were all in the same section and CHLOE PHARO was on fire that day as she took gold in this group too. Bronze medals went to BETHANY SCOULDING (who met Chloe in the semi's) and ELLIE BARTON who lost on warnings in the semi final.
The last events of the day were the kumite teams. LEWIS and MICHAEL HOLMES formed a 2 man team in the 9yrs and under section. Lewis showed a lot of courage by competing in this event but the courage was rewarded as they went through 2 rounds to get to the final where they narrowly missed the gold. They showed great spirit - well done boys!
The girls kumite team wiped the floor and took gold after winning 2 rounds. Well done to ELLIE BARTON, KATIE PHARO, BETHAY SCOULDING and CHLOE PHARO for ending the day on a high!
The total tally was 11 golds, 3 silvers and 5 bronze medals. The coaches were so proud and it was a very positive way to end 2009!
Ooooosshhaaaaaaaa!!!!