TKA Championships 2008 Results

Results

Sunday 17th February 2008 Goresbrook

Student Name	Kata	Team Kata	Kumite
John Gardiner	1st and 1st	.	.
Jess Walker	Entered	2nd	1st
Nicole Bonas	1st	.	.
Lucy Griffin	3rd	2nd	2nd
Sophie Griffin	3rd	2nd	2nd
Chelsea Houlder	2nd	.	2nd
Francesca Gambleton	3rd	.	Entered
Totals	7	3	4

Mike Tointon	Referee / Judge
Keith Houlder	Coach

Report provided by Keith Houlder

Kata Report

It was a cold and frosty morning when we assembled at Gorsebrook leisure centre once more for the first karate competition of the year held by the TKA association The squad from Upminster included John Gardiner, Chelsea Houlder, Francesca Gambleton, Lucy Griffin, Sophie Griffin, Jess Walker and Nicole Bonas.

Nicole was out first sporting her trademark confidence and put on an excellent display of her chosen kata, easily out scoring her opponents and taking the Gold medal even though she was probably the youngest in her group. Displaying true karate spirit as it was the day of her 8th birthday party, so I'm sure she had other things on her mind!

Sophie, Jess and Lucy all gave an excellent performance in their individual Kata events with Lucy and Sophie both taking a well earned Bronze medal each. Such was the standard that one small error probably cost Jess a medal in her event.

Chelsea and Francesca were in the black belt Kata and although this even was not unknown to Chelsea, this was her first time entering as a cadet. Chelsea had just finished learning the moves of a new Kata, the week before and wanted to try it out in a competition even if it cost her a place. She just wanted to get the "feel" of the Kata to see if it suited her style. As luck would have it, all the girls in the event performed the same Kata. This provided, with hindsight, an excellent way to measure herself against the others. Francesca came out with her usual style of looking like she "owned the mat", always good because it shows confidence to both the judges and her opponents and performed a stunning Kata which looked hard to beat. After Chelsea had completed her Kata it looked pretty close between the top three. This was proved right when Francesca and Chelsea were tied in second place separated from fist place by just 0.1 of a point. Chelsea and Francesca had to go against each other to decide the outcome by doing a different Kata to the first round with Chelsea just stealing Silver from Francesca by 0.1 point. The end result was, Chelsea Silver medal, Francesca Bronze medal in what was far from an easy group! A very close finish showing how competitive the girls are even though they are best friends! I couldn't wait for the fighting when they were again in the same event!

John Gardiner, as always is a pleasure to watch in Kata. He always puts on a stunning performance that takes ones breath away and once again he didn't let us down. I always feel sorry for anyone in these events following John onto the mat after seeing him perform as he has such a passion for what he does, and one look in the eyes of the person that follows him always tells the story. John is not so much "judged" at these events, I tend to think of it as an exercise of showing how it SHOULD be done! Well done to John, Gold Medals in both the events he entered.

The team Kata consisted of Jess, Sophie and Lucy and once again showed that all their practice paid off by getting Silver in which was again a very close event. The team came joint 1st after the first round, and had to perform the Kata again, narrowly missing out on the Gold! Well done girls, keep up the hard work.

Kumite Report

Fighting is in my opinion always the harder of the two categories as there are so many variables that go into the mix, kata is more technical while in fighting you have an opponent who can mess up any plan you have! In this event it is important time that you listen to the coach. He or she can see what you can't see and can advise accordingly and can in many cases make the difference between winning and losing a fight.

Sophie, Lucy and Jess all fought with heart and spirit, this being one of the first independent events that they had entered and I'm sure nerves were there as they are in even the more experienced athletes. I'm pleased they listened to the coaching and had an excellent result with Jess winning Gold, and Sophie and Lucy both winning Silver! Way to go girls!

Francesca and Chelsea were both in the black belt event and if things went well they would meet in the final, a not unknown prediction! Chelsea was in her first Cadet event since she turned 16 and I'm sure more than a little nervous and often takes advice from her friend and far more experienced and "mat wise" friend. Francesca won her first and second round fights easily (or that's the way she makes it look) but lost the next round owing to some technical difficulty's (normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!)

Chelsea's rounds went as normal but needed 1 point in "enchosen" to get into the final with the scores tied at 7-7. This means that the fighters have 1 minute to fight, first to score is the winner. Chelsea pulled a fast punch out of her bag of tricks and made the final. Sadly the gold eluded her on this occasion losing just 1-0 to the winner. A Silver medal was hers, winning 4 of her 5 fights and defeating 2 girls she has wanted to beat for some time. With hindsight I'm pretty sure the timekeeper got it wrong and the girls only fought for 1 minute in the final where as it should have been 1.5 or 2 minutes. It's a little hard to keep an eye on the scores as well as time each event in case of mistakes and make sure the judges are doing their jobs right! Do mistakes happen? Nooooooooooooo LOL !!

A great day for all the students that participated with 7 students getting 14 medals, I KNOW you made me, your parents and Sensei very proud!

Well done guys and girls!

Keith Houlder

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