Our team of Karate exponents from Basingstoke entered the National All Style Open Karate Competition in Reading this weekend. We entered children, cadets and adults into the tournament.
Our first success came with Louis Kelly (10) entering her first competition. In the 10/11 years Kumite, she got a bronze medal. She rapidly followed that up with a Bronze medal in the 12/13 years Kumite.
Jess Muller (15) had a field day winning Bronze in the 16/17 years kata, Silver in the 14/15 Kumite, Gold in the 16/17 years Kumite, Gold in the 15/17 years continuous fighting and Gold in the 14/15 Kata. A rather successful day for her.
Emma Baldry (14) won a Silver medal in the 16/17 years Kumite beating her team mate Rebecca Halil (14)into the Bronze medal position.
Harry Cronk (12) won his first ever individual Gold medal in fine style in the points sparring. Not content with that he convincingly won his next event the 12/14 years continuous fighting event too.
Husband and Wife team Emma (33) and Rob McDade (34) had a successful day with Emma scoring first blood with a Gold in the Ladies Black Belt Open Kata, followed by Rob getting two golds, one for the points Kumite and one for the continuous sparring. Both in categories higher than his current Karate grade.
In his first event, Bob Wilson won a Bronze medal in the Points Kumite and learnt some valuable pointers on how to improve for next time.
Matheus Alves-Sanchez competing in his second competition won two Bronze medals. The first in Kata and the second in Points Kumite. In a different division, he also won a Silver medal in Points Kumite.
Mark Nevola also had a very successful day in between coaching the squad, he made time to win Gold in the Veterans Kata, Silver in the Continuous Sparring and Gold in both the Veterans Kumite and also in the Black Belt Open Kata.
** (Kata is a choreographed sequence of movements where attacking and defensive movements are practised in sequence. Kumite is fighting.)