BIKO British International Championships   With four competitions being held on the same day plus the regional training sessions and selections, the hardest decision was which competition to attend. In the end it wasn’t really that difficult, “lets go to the closest one”. With Shuhari-Kai Sensei Richard Burridge deciding to referee at the BIKO British International Championships too the decision was done and dusted. So off we trotted to Grundy Park Leisure Centre in Cheshunt, Herts, on Sunday 11th September for this international event. It was surprisingly busier than we thought it was going to be given the glut of competitions being held simultaneously which was nice as it gave the squad more competition than expected. The squad of 9 did well with nearly everyone coming home with a medal and between them collected 3 Gold, 2 Silver and 6 Bronze medals.   The Kata events started off the day’s proceedings with the team Kata event, the ‘Mixed U16years’, being first. The Shuhari-Kai Kata team of Jodie Miles, Sophie Roberts and Aimee Sell had only one other team to face in this event and were drawn to perform first. They performed Seienchin Kata and scored 7.5, 7.5 & 7.4 from the three judges totalling 22.4. After performing their Kata, the team’s opponents scored 7.1, 7.0 & 6.9 from the judges totalling 21.0. It was Gold for the team and the squads first medal of the day.   The next Kata event, the ‘Mixed 10-15 Years 1st Kyu and over’ category was interesting as all five of our Kata competitors were competing in this category. This proved to be one of the largest and lengthy categories of the day. Each competitor performed their Kata in front of the panel of three judges and the top eight were put through to the final round where they performed a different Kata. The winner was the highest posits scorer from the final round. So how did they do….   Up first was Alex Sell who performed Unshu Kata and scored 22.3. Next was Jodie Miles performing Bassai-Dai Kata. She scored 22.6 from the three judges. Jade Lewis was next and scored 21.8 for her Seienchin Kata. Sophie Roberts followed and her Bassai-Dai scored 21.9. Finally Aimee Sell went also scoring 21.9 for her Annan Kata. After the remaining competitors had completed their Katas, the points were tallied and all five of the squad were in the top eight making it through to the final round.   Alex up first again performed Chatanyara Kushanku and scored 22.3. Next up was Jodie but she failed to score as her Kata was not completed. Jade was on the mat next and her Nipaipo Kata scored her 21.3. Sophie performed Unshu next which scored her 21.3. Finally Aimee rounded off the squad’s performances as she performed Bassai-Dai and scored 22.1. Once again the points were tallied and Alex was in gold medal position with Aimee tying with Emma Lucraft in joint 2nd. Both girls had to perform another Kata and Emma’s Unshu beating Aimee’s Nipaipo by 0.3. So Gold for Alex and Bronze for Aimee.   After a short delay whilst the weapons Kata event completed and some presentations were made to the foreign delegates who had attended, the Kumite events commenced. The ‘Girls 10-12 years U5’ category saw Jade Lewis in action. Jade fell 3 points behind early on and tried to scramble the points back. Jade scored with a Chudan Mawashigeri kick near the end but could not land the extra point needed to level the scores and bowed out just before the medal rounds. Next up was Jodie Miles competing in the ‘Girls 13-15 years U 5’3” category. Jodie stormed through her opening round match securing an impressive 8-0 win in style but she was unable to maintain her form and lost out 5-3 in the semi-final round. Nevertheless she collected her second medal of the day, a Bronze and the squads 4th medal of the tournament.   Dean Bannister and JJ Burridge were both competing in the ‘Male 16-17 years Cadets’ category. Dean was up first and in a close match secured a 1-0 win to put him into the semi-final round. JJ also managed to make the semi-final rounds after taking the bout with a 3-0 win. The first semi-final saw Dean take an early lead scoring 3 points with a Jodan Mawashigeri kick to his opponent’s head. Unfortunately his opponent gradually chipped away at the score to overcome the deficit and eventually win the bout 4-3. Dean put up an impressive display ad deserved his Bronze medal. JJ also failed to make the final as he was caught all too often by his opponents long reach losing 7-1 in the end. Like Dean, he too collected a Bronze medal making it 6 medals for the squad.   Sophie Roberts was soon in action in the ‘Girls 13-15 years Over 5’3” category. She made a good start securing an opening round victory with a 3-1 win. Her next round, the semi-final, proved more difficult as she was continually penalised for excessive contact (harshly in my humble opinion) giving away many penalty points to her opponent. Sophie made a comeback but was eventually disqualified before the end for one too many penalties. Sophie did collect a Bronze medal for herself though which went some way to making up for her defeat.   Little Callum Alboni was competing in his second ever competition and in the ‘Mixed U10 years U4’2” category he was really up against it as he’s only 6 years old. Even so he once again seemed to enjoy his time on the mat smiling throughout his fight. Callum finally lost 9-0 but collected a Bronze, his first medal in an open competition. Well done, first of many.   The ‘Boys 13-15 years Over 5’3” category saw both Alex Sell and CKA’s Ryan Lambert in action. Ryan has been out of competition for a while and was eager to shake off a few cobwebs here whilst Alex was coming here on the back of a double gold earned at the Seishin Open last month. Alex being in the top half of the draw was up first and secured a 3-0 victory against an awkward opponent who had to be shown what ‘correct technique’ was supposed to look like by the referee. Meanwhile Ryan cruised his opening round with a good 5-1 victory to show he’s not lost any of his ability. The second round saw Alex edge a cagey bout to take a 2-1 win ensuring he did enough not to get caught out by his opponent. Meanwhile Ryan was on a roll as he secured an impressive 8-0 win in his second round bout. The first semi-final saw Alex secure a tough 9-5 win to secure his final spot whilst Ryan also booked his spot with a 3-1 win in the second semi-final. The final finally saw the two boys, Alex and Ryan, come head to head. This was a tough, rough match but Alex took the win this time with a 7-2 score. An excellent Gold for Alex and an excellent Silver for Ryan given his lack of recent competition.   The two boys then teamed up for the ‘Boys 13-15 years Team’ event. They secured the services of James from WIKF to complete their three-man team. Their first match was a semi-final clash with Ryan opting to fight first. Ryan took an early lead and opened up a 3 point gap before being penalised a few times for Jogai (stepping out of the area). The bout finished in a draw with the score at 3-3. Alex was the second fighter and made amends taking maximum points with a good 8-0 win. James fought last and although just needing to avoid defeat by more 8 points he held his opponent to secure a 1-1 draw giving the team an overall win.   The final once again saw Ryan take up the mantle first but he was constantly beaten to the punch by his opponent and ended up losing 8-0. Alex then made up for Ryan’s defeat by securing a 9-0 win thus swinging the momentum back to the team with an overall points lead. The teams last fighter, James, just had to maintain a draw or better to secure gold, but try as he might he finally let slip 2 points handing victory to his opponents. Nevertheless the team always consider team events as a bonus and ensured they enjoyed themselves with the rest of the squad letting off plenty of steam with their support.   Squad: Callum Alboni, Dean Bannister, JJ Burridge, Ryan Lambert, Jade Lewis, Jodie Miles, Sophie Roberts, Aimee Sell & Alex Sell.