2nd WUKF Children/Cadet/Junior European Championships Hungary 2011

Trip to Gyor Hungary on weekend 7th to 9th October 2011

WUKF Junior European Championships 2011. Gyro , Hungary

Just when you think it cannot get much better than this (i.e. Lignano).  It does !!!

Even WUKF 'new boy' Mr Terry Pottage had to admit that 'it was impressive' !!! and coming from someone who has been there done it and got several t-shirts that's quite an affirmation.

Karate England had their biggest ever squad attend this the 2nd WUKF European Junior Championships in Gyor, Hungary.

A quick flight to Vienna and an hour transfer saw the party of nearly eighty arrive at the Hotel Famulus and prepare for an exciting weekend of top quality karate.

The coaching team of Abdu Shaher , Ian Cuthbert , Tricia Jordan  ,Julia Heenan and Brad Moore were supported by officials Azad Kumar, Sonia Powell, Mark Green, Dave Brashaw and Joanne fisher and an enthusiastic group of parents.

The venue was a huge arena at the nearby University , seemingly a recent build it was a brilliant setting.

The entry was 1490 competitors , 10 tatamis with over 100 officials.

DAY ONE
The first day saw all the kata events and we had the strange experience of having two favourites for gold in Hollie and Mitchell Roberts. They did not let us down with both taking gold in the female and male cadet shito-ryu events respectively.  Showing their usual fine form to the winners rostrum.

Newcomer Sam O'Mara has obviously been inspired by Holly and Mitchells success
over the last few years and took a well deserved bronze himself in  the male cadet wado ryu kata.

In the team kata events Karate England had two teams make the final. The boys and girls cadet shito-ryu kata teams. The boys coached by Tricia Jordan won silver and the girls coached by Phil Patrick took bronze.

In the children's under 15 years events Emily Valentine picked up two medals, silver in kata and bronze in kumite and Liam Powell took bronze in the boys 13-14 kumite.

In fact the weekend running order had all finals on the Sunday so there was a big pressure on everyone over the weekend to stay focused once they had made the final and then reproduce top form once again on the finals day. A big ask !!

The last events of the  Friday were the team sanbon events. We had two teams in both male and female cadet plus a male junior (18-20) team.  The opposition was top notch and although the male cadet made the quarter finals the only team to get a medal was the female cadet A team with Shauna Carroll, Maddie Moore, Dani Lester and Anna James-Bott.

DAY TWO

Saturday saw all the individual kumite events and rotation events.  It seemed like a big ask but with ten tatamis and 100 officials the schedule ran smoothly and quickly.

Dani Lester took a well deserved bronze in the female cadet U55k but our other two 'big guns' in the female cadets Maddie Moore and Shauna Carroll both went out in the early rounds. A blow to our expected medals tally.

In the male cadet kumite however, despite very large event numbers, Karate England talented athletes lead the rest of Europe.

In the male cadet U60k Ryan Correya and Mitchell Roberts were probably the two
lightest of the 47 competitors , fortunately they were in separate halves of the draw because amazingly they both made the final. Mitchell's priority had been kata but he has flourished in WUKF and has adapted nicely to the harder hitting format  and is fast becoming a force in the kumite.  Squad mate Ryan with more experience in the kumite side of things faced Mitchell in the Sunday final, all the coaches withdrew and let them get on with it. The result was a win for a very classy Ryan Correya but a well deserved silver for Mitchell.

In the big boys section Karate England had another two big hitters in current WUKF world champion Charlie Collins and fellow team mate Adam Carrigan-smith both WUKF world team champions from last year's event in Brazil .

Although they are both big lads they did seem to be the two smallest competitors
in their section, yet again.

Adam battled through various rounds eventually losing to a very strong Hungarian in the semi final. Charlie had one or two hiccups but oozed world class as he cruised to the final. Facing the big Hungarian in Sundays final Charlie went one wazari down, equalised and then went 2-1 down.  He pulled it back to 2-2 with another gyaku-zuki chudan , face punched to go 3-2  up and then attacked with some excellent footwork and hurt his opponent with a superb left body punch. At 4-2 his opponent threw caution to the wind and Charlie switched stance and defended with a reverse roundhouse kick to the head. It brought the  house down and also gave Charlie a European title to go along with his World crown.  Congratulations to him !

In the team rotation events the male cadet A team  with Charlie Adam and Ryan put the  current champions Romania to the sword , beat Italy then got disqualified in the quarter finals against eventual winners Ukraine. The B team with Ben Poulter , Ben Turner and Sam O'Mara  had better luck winning their pool but losing 9-6 in the semi final against Portugal. But a hugely deserved bronze for the lads.

In the male Junior rotation first round Garrick Eastwood took the Romanian team (the event favourites) out single handed with six straight points in the first minute. The opposition stiffened considerably after that but the boys made the semi final only to lose out to Portugal in a feisty semi final battle losing  6-7 to a contentious final punch on the time up bell that could been give either way or as contact.

In the female team rotation the B team of Jordanne Collins , Fern Sugden and Courtney Rivers went out in the early rounds but the A team of Shauna Carroll, Maddie Moore, Dani Lester and Anna James-Bott stormed their pool  to make their final. Remember that Karate England female cadets are current World champions at rotation and they looked it as they swept aside the opposition.

In the final they faced Italy who never really had a chance to get off their blocks before they were 3-0 down to a barrage of attacks and counter attacks from the English trio.  The match was stopped before time was up as England gained a six point advantage and the gold went to England.

With so many areas on the go and a huge number of officials it was possible to run some Senior International events alongside the Junior events 3 male and 3 female.  We had success here as well with Lee Willis winning silver in the lightweight and Phil Patrick taking the gold in the middleweight sections. Well done to both of them.

Next year's calendar looks interesting with trips to Scotland and Serbia but also the introduction of a 'Five Nations League'.

Watch this space

A fantastic event and great weekend from venue , hotel , presentation  the
works. 

6 Gold. 4 Silver and 9 Bronze.  

Sixth place on the medals table

Well done to everyone  !

RESULTS

Gold 6

Holly Robert - Female cadet shito ryu kata
Mitchell Roberts - Male cadet shito ryu kata
Ryan Correya - Male cadet kumite. U60k
Charlie Collins -  Male cadet kumite. O75k
Female cadet team rotation - Shauna Carroll , Maddie Moore , Dani Lester and Anna
James-Bott

Phil Patrick - Male senior international event u 75 k


Silver 4

Emily Valentine - Girls open kata
Mitchell Roberts - Male cadet kumite u60k
Male cadet team kata shito ryu - Sam Hulbert , Albie Warner and Conor MacNamara

Lee Willis - Male senior international event u65k

Bronze 9

Emily Valentine - Girls kumite
Adam Carrigan-Smith - Male cadet kumite O75k
Liam Powell - Boys kumite
Dani Lester - Female cadet. U55k
Sam O'Mara - Male cadet wado ryu kata
Female cadet shito ryu team kata - Dani Lester, Anna James-Bott,  Jordanne Collins
Female cadet kumite team Sanbon - Shauna Carroll, Maddie Moore, Dani Lester
and Anna James-Bott
Male cadet kumite Team rotation - Ben Poulter, Ben Turner, Sam O'Mara and Sam
Hulbert
Male junior team kumite rotation - Garrick Eastwood, Joby Wilson and Jamie
Boddington

Video from the Event :-