Dokan Karate Club

EAST YORKSHIRE OPEN STYLE KARATE COMPETITION

Hot on the heels of a very successful International at Glasgow Dokan squad travelled to Hull to compete in the East Yorkshire open style karate championships.

Having trained hard all summer for the Glasgow international they kept the momentum going till Sunday 29th at Hull. And it paid dividends.The club entered 33 students into a multitude of categories and came away with astounding results winning 21 gold medals, 15 silver and 12 bronze medals.

This competition is large and well organised with six areas running non-stop all day and most categories had competitor numbers entered in the high twenties or low thirties - a large and busy affair.

Our newcomers Katie Snowdon, Maddison Taylor, Katie Hunnam and Chloe Telford were, yet again, outstanding. They all won medals in kata and narrowly missed out in kumite. Even though all four went out in quarter finals the standard of their fighting was excellent, especially Madz Taylor who looks very classy for a just turned 7 year old ninth kyu (a prospect in the making). Other competition newcomers Tom Chatterje and Lara Elliott had a Dokan final in 6 year old kumite. Lara won 9 to 1 and was by far the most skilful fighter on the area winning some bouts in ten seconds. Her sister Gina took a bronze in the seven years kata being beaten by the eventual winner Dokan's Katie Snowdon.

The club was terrific. All the students were focused and gave it 100%. It is difficult to mention everyone when you enter so many and so many do well but those who won three gold medals were Alex Steadman, Tammy Proctor and Lola Cassidy. Lola beat her friend and team mate Eve Palmer twice in both kumite and kata finals but they were both fabulous all day.

Tammy just missed out on four golds when she was disqualified in the final whilst up 5 points to two. Another kumite disqualification was Wes who being 5 to 1 up was disqualified with 2 seconds to go, a bit harsh. Eleisha was narrowly beaten in the kumite final so she just missed out on three golds too.

The whole day was thoroughly enjoyable with exciting kata sections and really exciting kumite bouts - most notably Sadie Stoner who won her kata section.

More entertaining was a hard fought team kumite bout against a Scottish team. The scores being one fight each and Sadie being down a point as the last fighter she flicked a ura geri in on the last second of the fight to take victory for her team. It was super they made the final but were they beaten by Dokan Eleisha’s team.

Another two Dokan girls to do well were Simone Stewart and Holly Stoner. In kata Holly is now starting to live up to my expectations of her. And final mention for gutsy fighting to Katie Hunnam, Megan Purvis and in particularly Abbie Scollen.

The event started on time and finished on time. It was well organised by Tony and to crown a fantastic day all the squads received a free large squad photograph.