Competition Day 2008

On Saturday 12th April 2008, a large number of hopeful karate-ka from the Bedford and Milton Keynes area turned up for another eventful CFTS Competition open day. The categories included Individual Kumite and Kata plus a Dan grade Individual Kata and Kumite as well as a team Kumite fight, Bedford Vs Milton Keynes area. The day was packed with excitement and anticipation from the awaiting karate - Ka.

Sensei McClagish started the day off by thanking everyone for coming, wishing everyone good luck and to ‘think of not losing rather than not winning’.

The first events were individual Kata for different age groups and grades with the youngest competitors going first, then it moved up to the higher grades and older people.  Each round was very tense with the best four people going through to the semi finals and then working the way up to the higher grades. Then came the semi final of all participants no matter what age or grade, as each participant had to demonstrate their kata individually in front of a whole circle of other karate ka, which is very daunting! Each participant being scored on their performance with the highest out of each category earning themselves a medal.

After the initial kata rounds came the individual Kumite, after a nervous wait the preparation began preparing mitts and gum shields waiting nervously for their turn. There was a lot of competitive fighting with high spirits and great expectations, even the crowd were getting involved cheering lots of encouragement and support for their fellow team mates.  The Kumite was split into under tens and fifteens mixed groups and sixteen and above male and female groups.

Every karate-ka who entered the competition had the opportunity to fight several times with lots of spirit and all in all with good control and self discipline. After the first elimination rounds were out of the way it then came down to the semi finials with each competitor trying their best to get through with some fierce competition. All karate-ka’s were routing for each other no matter what club they came from, we all pulled together as one big association.
 

The Dan grades were also allowed to participate if they were below Sandan. The categories were female and male Kumite over 16’s and a junior black belt category.  The Dan grade events were performed to a very high standard including Kata scores and some very close Kumite fights, this gave spectators a lot of excitement and a lot of support, mainly thinking to themselves ouch!

Once all of the semi finals and finals were out of the way, there was a very interesting team Kumite event with some of the Bedford area Dan grades v’s the Milton Keynes/ Bletchley area. This was certainly worth the wait, after all five competitors from each team had been it was a draw and left down to the final fight against Sensei Chris Toms from Bedford and Sensei Liam O'Reilly from Newport Pagnell, it was a close match but the Bletchley area team won.

After all that fun and excitement came the ceremony of the medals and trophies to the winners of the competition. Some pictures of the award winners are:

Sensei Andy Gillies was this year’s recipient of the Executive cupwhich Sensei Kidby explained to the audience that this cup was awarded by the executive to the karate-ka who had shown the most spirit, sportsmanship in participation over the course of the day. It has become tradition that the previous winner presents it to the new recipient. So on this occasion the cup was presented to Sensei Gillies by Sensei Toms who in return was awarded a smaller replica of the cup to keep.

As the long day drew to a close Sensei Kidby thanked everyone who had helped make the day such a success.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE FOR NEXT YEARS COMPETITION!!

By Sarah Heaslip, Clapham Club.

NOTE: all these pictures & many more are available at: http://homepage.mac.com/mark.leach/ for a limited time.

RESULTS