BKF Championships - Glasgow
The British Karate Federations Open International Karte Competition
International success for Dokan karate students was achieved on September the 7th at The Emirates Arena, Glasgow. The tournament had over 40 clubs enter and 14 nations competed on the day.
Overall Dokan Karate won 5 gold, 7 silver and 16 bronze medals and finished the day in fourth place on the club medal table. This was quite an achievement as no adults were entered so only half the events were open to them.
That’s the statistics out of the way. Now lets talk performance.
Of particular merit was Eleisha Jane Mitchinson who won two gold and a bronze and finished in fifth place on the competitor medal table. Eleisha who has not had the best of years in competition success eventually had a bit of a break. She and Megan Purvis were awesome in the pairs kata and Eleisha followed that gold with another in individual kata. She also took a bronze with Hannah Nicholson in pairs fighting. A bit of dubious refereeing saw her disqualified in the quarter finals of individual kumite.
The other two gold medals were won by Ben Purvis and Eve Palmer. Ben won kata which is a turn up for the books as he is more of a kumite lad and the opposite can be said for Eve as she is considered more a kata girl but she put on a gritty show of determination to win a very tough individual kumite section. She also took a bronze in kata and a bronze in pairs kumite. Eve was outstanding all day and finished on the competitor table in the top thirty.
The whole club put a brilliant display of skill and courage throughout the day with many rising above expectations.
A quick word of praise for newcomer Katie Hunnam who took a silver in kumite, a bronze in kata and a bronze in pairs kumite with the other newcomer Katie Snowdon. Katie Snowdon also took a silver in kata.
These are fantastic results for their first big national competition.
One downside to this comp was the fact it did not finish until after ten at night. The Dokan competitors had been up at 3.00am in order to leave Sunderland at 4.00am and we had a hotel booked for that evening. The kids wanted to get back for a bit of social time together and everyone was tired so we pulled out of the open kumite events at 6.30 and went to our hotel.
The following day was bright and sunny so we had a quick vote and decided to take the kids to Edinburgh Zoo. Part of the thrill for the kids of competing is the social aspect, from the coach journey to stopovers this is what they enjoy the most. It is like a great big gang of friends getting together so a day at the zoo finished the weekend off nicely for Dokans dedicated students, alias your kids.
Glasgow was a top competition but I hope they do it over two days next year.