United Styles Association Open Championships    After a long day on Saturday, four students from the Shuhari-Kai squad made the early morning trip to Dudley on Sunday 15th May 2005. Vishaal Dovedi, Jodie Miles, Jade Lewis and Sophie Roberts and not forgetting our coach for the day Lawrence Grosvenor.   Up first were Jodie, Jade and Vishaal, all competing in the mixed 10 – 12 years 5th Kyu and above Kata category and along with 35 other competitors.  Vishaal was up first and performed Pinan Sandan which scored 5.5,  5.9  & 5.8  giving him a grand total of 17.2. Next up was Jade and after performing her Seienchin Kata her score was 6.2, 6.0 & 6.0 giving her a total of 18.2 which at the end of the event put her in tied 8th place. Our last one in this event was Jodie and after performing Bassai-Dai she scored 6.3,  6.2 & 6.5 giving her a total of 19.0 and putting her in first position. No one could beat Jodie’s score on the day and so Jodie picked up the squads first gold of the day.   Meanwhile, while they were on one mat Sophie was called up to compete in the mixed 13 – 15 years 5th Kyu and above Kata category. Again it was another large category with a total of 31 competitors entered into it. Sophie decided to perform Unsu and scored 6.2, 6.1 & 6.3 giving her a total of 18.6 which was enough to give her the silver medal.   Our trio of girls then entered the team Kata event. As per normal they practiced the walk on to perfection or NOT! .  There were 11 teams in this event, which was junior 14 years and below. Even though the individuals were done on points, we assumed that as they were using the point system for teams, the girls would only need to perform one Kata, but no, after performing Jion and scoring 18.5 they then had to perform a second Kata this time they chose Seienchin scoring another 18.5 . They then had to perform yet another Kata apparently although they were using points, they were working on the red and blue belts system. Second time round for Jion they scored 18.4, giving Shuhari-Kai there second gold of the day.   Next it was time for Kumite with Vishaal up first. Vishaal managed to score but took a few low punches and was unable to gain lead, but nevertheless a good show.   Next it was the 10 – 12 years with Jade and Jodie in the same event. Jade was up first and managed to pull off her first fight but was unlucky in her next fight losing by just a couple of points to the girl who eventually won the event. Jodie was next and went two points down early on. Jodie brought the points back and managed to take the first win. However, Jodie was unlucky in her next fight as at the end of the match it was 7–7 so an extra minute was on the clock, but Jodie was unfortunate as her opponent just beat her to the gyak.   Last up but by no means least it was our last fighter Sophie. Sophie went up in the first round against a girl who she had fought before. After taking the first point the other girl managed to catch up and take over the lead. Sophie was unable to pull the points back as the judges awarded the gyak points to the other girl but it was a very close fight and well fought.   Well done to all the squad and a big THANKYOU to our coach Lawrence.   Report by Kerry Roberts and Pat Miles