Shuhari-Kai Summer Updates
Its been a while since there's been any write ups so here we go as to what's been happening...
Latest Gradings
Congratulations to Callum Alboni who received his 3rd kyu brown belt at our Autumn weekend Camp in October. Also congratulations to Martin Lucus who graded to 7th Kyu and Charlie Keeling grading to 9th Kyu. Well done.
British Karate Federation National Championships
Alex Sell competed at the British Open in Edinburgh in September 2009 and won silver in the 16-17 -76kgs event dropping 3 points in the dying seconds of final after leading by 2 points after coming through three earlier rounds.
Copenhagen Open Karate Championships
At the beginning of October Alex Sell then travelled to Denmark to compete in the Copenhagen Open where he was unlucky not to medal in the Kata events coming 5th overall. In the Kumite things didn't seem to go his way and went out early. Unlucky for Alex, can't medal all the time
but he enjoyed the experience.
Welsh Open National Championships
The following week Alex then attended the Welsh Open, deciding to just concentrate on the Kumite as this was his build-up for the forthcoming Junior Worlds. Alex won a silver in the -76kgs. The final went the full distance ending on a draw at full time but Alex lost
out in extra time to settle for silver.
National Squad Training
There have been monthly National Squad training sessions with the latest one being held in Dudley. This session was for the England 'A' squad and invited athletes plus open to seniors. As
well as Alex Sell attending it was good to see Dean Bannister attend one of these sessions taking time out of his university degree course to dust off his mits and meet up with Alex. Dean trained for the 2 hour morning session whilst Alex trained the whole day. With the
squad and seniors split into groups with Ian Cole, Greg Francis and Juliette Toney taking the groups everyone benefitted from a hard and comprehensive session.
WKF Junior World Championships - Pre-Training
Well Alex Sell is now at the pre-training camp in Halifax with the rest of the Kumite squad preparing for the Junior World Championships in Morocco on 12-15 November 2009. There have been early morning starts at 7.30am travelling to the dojo with the rest of the squad and study
time to ensure Alex and the rest of the athletes keep up with their education. The team are bonding well and are enjoying the training. The squad will return Saturday and fly out to Morocco on Monday. This is Alex's 3rd Call up to represent England and all our best wishes are with
him as he now enters the world stage.
Alex would like to thank Sensei Burridge for all his support and all the clubs and students that helped raised money to help Alex go to the Worlds Championships. There will be a write up on how Alex gets on in Morocco. Keep an eye on the EKF site as there is a blog, news, and
pictures regarding the build up to the World Championships and the actual event. |