Off we went to the biggest competition on the calendar… and for Tekki members, probably the most entertaining! Although 21 of us had entered, somehow only 15 of us competed!! Strange. Gloria’s strategy of pretending to compete (to get in cheaper) has caught on.
The day kicked off with the Children’s Ippon Kumite which filled almost every floor. Congratulations to purple belt Katie Lloyd (age 9) and green belt Jess Palmer (age 8) for winning loads and loads of rounds to get to the semi finals.
Next up was the 10 & 11 year old sprogs freestyle fighting. This was purple belt Morris Garrard’s first time at this, and as luck would have it was up against a black belt. He achieved what he had hoped for which was not to get smacked in the face. In fact, he fought very well, constantly evading attacks - which just annoyed the black belt even further!
Green belt Megan Lloyd (age 10) also did freestyle fighting for the first time in the 10 – 15yrs below 5’ 3” category. Quite scary for Meg, as there’s a big difference in that age group. Megan was the lowest grade to compete and ended up fighting a 2nd dan, (one of the highest grades in that event!) Poor Meg. But not put off, she did very well and went in on her opponent many times.
Adult Kata took over the areas next. Special congratulations to Euros for getting through to the quarter finals beating many recognisable faces. Euros was really on form, we are looking forward to seeing him compete at the Welsh Champs next month.
Also well done to former Tekki member Victoria Roberts-Burt, who performed ace Heian Katas, and got to the Semis (achieving 6th place overall).
Team Kata….. hmmmmm. This year saw Euros, Mark and John team up and do a stunning kata until they had to stop halfway through as judges, desks and officials got in the way. Anyways, although it was obvious to everyone what had happened, the judges insisted on having an intimate group discussion, leaving the team quite humiliated standing on the floor…… but we still didn’t come last!! Life is a learning curve – next time the judges will know to get out of our way!
Female Team Kumite saw Alice, Kim and Rhi team up again, and doing very well getting to the 3nd round, as always they performed well and had to fight some very good clubs.
Male Team Kumite saw Euros, Mark and Clive team up… with 2 reserves standing nervously by (John and Stuart) Mark being hard (and the team having nervous reserves) still fought in the team after a nasty uncontrolled kick to the head in his individual freestyle event prior to this. The fight ended up with one win, one lose and a draw so Euro went on again and was just beat to the point..
Special congratulations to Jess Plamer (pictured) who achieved 3rd place in the under 16 below brown belt kata event. Jess performed Heian Sandan and first of all drew for 2nd place. Jess, unfazed by the hundreds watching, had to perform her kata again and was awarded 3rd place, and was given a really heavy bronze medal! Although I believe she should have got second.
by Sensei John Childs