| Sunday 4th December 2005 saw a Shuhari-Kai squad of ten attend the Tournament Karate Association Invitational Tournament held at Newham Leisure Centre. We had never been invited along to this tournament before and didn't quite know what to expect
but was pleasantly surprised at the number of competitors, especially as no under 8's were allowed meaning we had to leave a few little ones of our own behind this time. The standard was pretty good too which meant the squad had to really work for their medals, as it should be.
Although the invitation was a surprise, it was more than welcomed as this, for many, was the last opportunity for them to compete this year.
The Kata events commenced first and were split according to grade; low, medium and high grades. In the 5-4th Kyu Mixed category, Jordan Hodges was our sole representative. Jordan performed Pinan Shodan in the first round and won the tie 2 flags to 1. The second round
saw Jordan perform Pinan Yodan but he lost out this time 2-1. Fortunately for Jordan that was the semi-final and he picked up a bronze for his efforts.
The Mixed 3rd Kyu and Over category had 5 of the squad competing together in a large field making this a five-round event. Vishaal Dovedi was a first round casualty as he lost his opening round 3-0 after performing Kushanku Kata against a strong opponent. Jade
Lewis received a first round bye straight to round two. Aimee Sell also progressed to round two after securing a 3 flags to 0 win for her opening Bassai-Dai Kata. Sophie Roberts followed Aimee into round two after her Bassai-Dai Kata took a
2-1 win. The last of the five-some was Alex Sell who joined the other three into round two with a 3-0 win for his Seienchin Kata. Round two saw Jade book a third round spot after she secured a 2-1 win with her Seienchin Kata. Sophie followed suit with a 2-1
win for her Seipai Kata. Alex pulled out all the stops with his Annan Kata after coming up against his close rival, little sister Aimee. She performed Seienchin but the age-gap, 10yrs versus 13yrs was too much to make up on the power difference as he won the tie
3-0. The third round
saw Jade perform Bassai-Dai to good effect securing a 2 flags to 1 win to see her safely into the semi-finals. Joining Jade was Sophie who performed Unshu. Once again she did enough to beat her opponent 2-1. Joining his two remaining team mates into the
semi-finals was Alex after securing a 3-0 following his Nipaipo Kata. The first semi-final saw Jade perform Nipaipo but finally loose out 3-0 to Emma Lucraft (Emma incidentally helped Havering girls to victory in the London Youth Games earlier in the year).
The second semi-final saw Sophie versus Alex. Sophie performed Annan whilst Alex performed Unshu. Alex came out victor this time with a 3-0 win knocking out his second club member in the process. The final saw Alex perform Chatanyara Kushanku and
secure the Gold with a 2 flags to 1 win over Emma to secure the clubs first gold of the day. The Kumite events followed the Kata and were spilt by gender, grade and height to make the categories more even. This meant that some categories only had a few competitors whilst others had many. Ali
Ayerman was in the Small Boys Low Grade category (I think) and made a promising start in the opening round taking the victory 2 points to 1. However his progress was halted the following round as he lost out 4-2 to end his involvement. The Small Boys Middle Grade?? category
saw Jordan Hodges take to the mats. Jordan opened up his account in impressive style in the second round following his first round bye, with an 8-0 win. The third round saw Jordan take a few whacks and at 0-0 it went to extra time. Jordan's opponent caught him hard once
again and was given a second warning and a point to Jordan giving Jordan the win. The semi-final is where Jordan's luck ran out as he narrowly lost 1-0 settling for a Bronze on this occasion. That was a good performance given that Jordan wasn't feeling well all day.
Vishaal Dovedi and Andrew Ayerman were both in the Medium Boys High Grade category. Andrew put on a really good show holding onto a lead for much of the match but finally lost out towards the end narrowly losing 6-5. Vishaal made the second round following a
narrow win in extra time in the first round only to then lose 7-2 and bow out early in round two.
The Medium Girls High Grade saw Jade Lewis in a small category with two other opponents, one being Emma Lucraft. Emma received a bye straight into the final leaving Jade having to fight for a finals place. Jade didn't disappoint as she easily beat her
opponent 7-1. The final saw Jade versus Emma and Jade came out second best on this occasion losing 2-0 to Emma and settling for Silver. Well done Jade.
Elle Ayerman had a really good opening round match in the Big Girls (am I allowed to say 'Big Girls'?) High Grade category. Elle lost the initial point but fought back to level the match before losing another point but then regain it. This went on to the end but when
Elle went behind once again at 6-5 she just ran out of time to level things up and had to bow out early. Unlucky. There were no such problems for Sophie Roberts who was also in this category. Sophie's opening round match was a close affair with Sophie not firing on all
cylinders at this stage. Sophie did take a narrow 2 points to 1 victory into the semi-finals. There she had another close match going into extra time with the scores tied at 5 apiece at the end of normal time. Sophie was the first to score in extra time, landing a
Mawashigeri kick on her opponent and scoring 2 points to take the win. The final was a little more comfortable for Sophie as she beat her opponent 5-3 to claim the squads second gold of the day. Well done Bandit. The Big Boys category saw Alex Sell in action
and he took to the task straight away throwing numerous techniques at his opponent but few scored. Alex won the match 3-0 in the end but it could of been a lot higher. The second round was indeed a lot higher as he won 8-0 this time. The semi-final was a tougher match as Alex
went behind 2-0 early on. But he didn't give up and came back from behind to claim victory with a 4-2 score. The final was another tough knife-edged fight but once again Alex came good in the end never giving up and claimed a hard fought gold with a 5-4 win. Dean
Bannister was the squads last competitor and Dean moved up into the adult category (which was split into two on size) as there was no 17yrs events. Dean was straight into the semi-finals in this event and if Alex kept us shouting, Dean had us screaming. Dean put on a
brilliant show and battling away to level the scores at 8-8 at the end of normal time. Dean was the first to strike in extra time to claim that all important extra point and victory. The final saw Dean initially take the lead following a beautiful Jodan Mawashigeri kick for 3
points but his opponent was soon back on level terms. With the scores at 5-5 Dean's opponent just nicked a point in the dying seconds to snatch victory away, but Dean was more than happy with his performance claiming a silver, and so were we. All in the the squad did
well and came away with 3 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronzes. Although the competition area was limited, Tony Gray and Tyrone White put on a good show and ran the tournament well. A big thank you to you guys and remember us for your next one as I'm sure we'd love to come back.
Squad: Ali Ayerman, Andrew Ayerman, Elle Ayerman, Dean Bannister, Vishaal Dovedi, Jordan Hodges, Jade Lewis, Sophie Roberts, Aimee Sell, Alex Sell. |