The welsh championships; the most prestigious competition held in Wales, took place on the 11th June in Merthyr Tydfil. The day started with a rainy trip to Merthyr (how unusual for Wales!), but obviously as soon as the eliminations started the sun came out with a vengeance.
Tekki was very well represented, and everybody did exceptionally well; virtually everybody proceeded through several rounds before being eliminated by competitors very similar in standard. Exceptional noteworthy performances that did not result in positions in the finals were Rhianedd’s and Sophie’s kata performances, both girls being dubiously eliminated and just missing out on the finals.
The best performance of the day was from Alice Griffiths, who despite being in the senior events for the first time seemed completely un-phased to be competing against people twice her size. She was awarded 2nd place in the Senior Ladies Kata, missing out on 1st place on a technicality: having been awarded an identical score to the winner Jane Petts (a very experienced competitor), a very little known rule was applied to reach a decision, where the highest and lowest marks awarded were included in the final score (usually these marks are not included in order to cope with potential wild scoring by the judges), meaning that Alice lost to Jane by only 0.1 points. Obviously we must play by the rules and are delighted for Jane, but it would perhaps have been more sporting to allow the two ladies to perform their katas for a second time, allowing the winner to be judged based on a superior performance.
The unexpected stars of the day were our groupies, who despite standing in the wrong place at the wrong time seemed to fully enjoy the experience of being table officials for the day. So a big thanks to George, Ann and Michelle for helping the championships to run smoothly, although George seemed to enjoy the day to excess, having been continuously surrounded by ladies, a favourite pastime for Scottish people.
The medal winners this year were:
Viviane Watson-Smith - 3rd - Ippon Kumite
Sarah Fitzpatrick- 3rd – Junior Ladies Kumite
Sophie Griffiths - 2nd – Junior Ladies Kumite
Phillip Roberts-Burt, Viviane Watson-Smith, Tomos Dylan - 4th - Junior Team Kata
Alice Griffiths, Sophie Griffiths, Victoria Roberts-Burt - 3rd - Senior Team Kata
Alice Griffiths - 2nd – Senior Ladies Kata
Viviane Watson-Smith
Sarah Fitzpatrick
Sophie Griffiths
Tomos Dylan, Viviane Watson-Smith, Philip Roberts-Burt
Alice Griffiths, Victoria Roberts-Burt, Sophie Griffiths
Alice Griffiths