Sunday 21st May saw the 40th anniversary of the KUGB, celebrated in style at the 2006 National Championships in Birmingham. For those of us who weren’t sensible enough to stay in Birmingham the night before, it was an early start and a bleary-eyed arrival at a very wet National Indoor Arena.
The Tekki team consisted of Alice Griffiths, Sophie Griffiths, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Chris , John Griffiths, John Childs, Clive Davies, Stuart Gwynne, Rhianedd Thompson, Flora Davies, Tomos Dylan, Elin Williams and Toby. With Gloria and Anne, and Kaori, Masatak, Marisa & Leo supporting from the spectators gallery with a special appearance from Kieren.
The national championships is a major event, with competitors from all over the country competing at a high level.
Sensei Simon Thompson was dressed very smartly for his duties as a Judge, which meant that Sensei Clive Davies took over the coaching from the sidelines, desperately trying to persuade us all to use more than one attack at a time and not to block with our faces. Sorry sensei!
Everyone from Tekki did well. Sophie attempted to distract her opponent by bleeding everywhere, when we all know she just wanted a breather while her toe was bandaged. Though Alice went one better by accidentally dislocating her opponent’s finger. Now that is an extreme way to get a rest. Stuart took on the senior male kumite event with much enthusiasm.
Kimberly May made a welcome return to Tekki, helping us to form a 3 woman kumite team. Nice to have her back with us for some good scuffling. Congratulations to the team who gained 3rd place overall.
Sarah was the star of the show, managing to learn a new kata in record time, and perform it well enough to help the Tekki team (Alice, Sophie and Sarah) through to the second round of Team kata.
As it was the 40th anniversary we were treated to some extra demonstrations during the finals in the evening. A team of competitors from America flew over to show us some quality fighting versus the Great Britain team.
The highlight was a demonstration by Sensei Frank Brennan and 3 members of the Great Britain squad, with throws, sweeps and kicks, defending against knife and bo attacks. It was a fairly one-sided affair, with absolutely no doubt about who was going to win! Watch the video.
It was a very long day but worth the effort to have everyone there supporting and celebrating each others successes, or catastrophic lack of ability to attack with anything other than giakizuki!
Role on the Welsh Championships!