North of England Open
A late decision to enter the first North of England karate championships proved to be a good one. I hastily texted out to gauge interest on my return from Glasgow and had three days to sort our entry and email it off to the organisers, Paul and Kevin Royston. Twenty-two Dokan students took up the challenge, a few of them from Wes Chatterjes Shungou club.
The day got off to a poor start as we did not get the kata results I expected, in any kata events. This was not just because of some haphazard refereeing but because the standard of team and pair entry was excellent. Our only gold in kata came courtesy of the under nines team.
Kumite saved the day for us in well fought and rough spirited bouts. We romped the 10 to 11 girls section with gold silver and both bronze medals with skilful performances from our experienced squad and Lola Cassidy yet again winning gold with super skill.
Under nines girls we took both gold (Emma Snaith) and silver (Isabella Shields) and silver in the higher grade under 9s girls (Beth Kerr). The other individual kumite gold came from Bradley bone in 12 to 13 years male. Emma Snaith won 3 gold and 2 bronze medals on the day.
But the excitement was just starting as the team fighting events began. Again, our two 10 to 11 year old girls teams dominated the section taking gold and silver. The other team events were much closer with each one going to one bout each and falling on the third bout to decide victory. We won under 9 years boys, the under nine years girls, plus the 13 to 15 years girls team fighting all in this manner. A most exciting climax to the day with everyone cheering on from the grandstand seating.
Of particular mention is the 13 to 15 year group with our girls all being small and only 13 and the fights being rough as brawls. Eleisha scoring a ura-geri in the dying seconds to steal a semi-final victory and again winning the last bout in the final was fantastic. Rebecca stuck to her job and did her best but Hannah Nicholson stood out and looked super classy all day, performing brilliantly and winning all her bouts.
Great medals of which we won 18 gold, 16 silver and 20 bronze plus T-shirts for the individual section winners and some prize money sections. What a fabulous comp; well thought out and well run.
