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 The size of the squad may have been small with only three members, but their achievements at the Welsh Karate Governing Body National Karate Championships was huge with them taking five individual Welsh Titles between them. The
Championships were held in The Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff on Sunday 20th November 2005. Obviously for some, the big sporting event in Cardiff over the weekend was the Six-Nations Rugby Tournament, but for us there was only one sporting event that mattered, the
Welsh Nationals (although we did watch the Wales v South Africa rugby match in the hotel bar on Saturday evening, Hic!).
The three squad members competing from Shuhari-Kai Karate Club were Aimee Sell who won her Kata event last year (Mixed U12yrs) and was looking to retain her title, Sophie Roberts who claimed a Kumite (fighting) Gold in the Welsh
Junior Championships held in the Summer and Alex Sell who amazingly had never actually won a Welsh title coming close on many occasions though.
The Kata events commenced first with Aimee competing in the Mixed U12 Years category. With 42 competitors in this category making this a six-round event, this category started first but finished well after Alex and Sophie had finished
theirs. Aimee
performed Bassai-Dai in the first round and took all three judges flags. The second round saw Aimee perform Seienchin and once again was voted for by all three judges. Round three once again a three-flag decision for Aimee for her Nipaipo Kata. The fourth round saw Aimee perform
Seienchin Kata and once more took all three flags. Now in the semi-final for round five, Aimee performed Nipaipo and took a 3-0 win into the final. Going for gold, Aimee made no mistakes as she once more took the unanimous judges flags for her Seienchin Kata to take Gold and
retain the Mixed U12yrs Kata title, a title held by Shuhari-Kai for the last three years. An amazing record.
Next up was Alex in the Boys 12-15 Years Kata category. Alex’s first round Kata of Seienchin saw him take a three flags to nil win. The second round saw Alex perform Bassai-Dai and once again take all three
judges flags. The semi-final saw Alex once again secure a three flag win with Nipaipo Kata looking in good form for the final. The final saw Alex perform Chatanyara Kushanku and took his first Welsh Gold winning two flags to one.
Sophie was the last of the trio to compete in the Kata events, competing in the Girls 12-15 years Kata category. Sophie had an easy start receiving a first round bye. The second round saw Sophie perform
Bassai-Dai and secured an impressive three flags to nil victory. The semi-final round saw Sophie perform Seipai and once again secured all the three judges decisions. The final saw Sophie perform an unstoppable Unshu Kata taking all the judges flags once again but also giving her, her
first Welsh Kata title.
What was impressive with the trio, is that even though there were no compulsory Katas, each of them performed their opening Katas according to World Karate Federation rules (ie, compulsory Shitei Katas in the first one/two rounds followed by
free-choice Katas) and also the only flag dropped between them was from Alex in the final which shows what a tremendous achievement that was.
Even more tremendous was that both Alex and Sophie secured another Gold each in their individual Kumite (fighting) events.
Alex, competing in the Boys 12-13 Years Kumite category against 30 other competitors secured an impressive opening round win with a clear 8-0 victory. Looking in good form Alex then secured a second round win
with a 9-1 victory. The third round saw Alex take a 6-1 win to secure his place in the semis. The fourth round semi-final saw Alex ease to a 4-1 win to book his final spot. The final saw Alex have a tougher time of things but he stuck to his guns and came out a 5-2 winner for his
second Gold of the day.
Sophie wasn’t to be outdone by Alex and she secured an 8-0 opening round win in the Girls 14-15 Years Kumite event. Sophie opened up the scoring in her second round match but gave away some late points to make
for a close 4 points to 3 win. The semi-final saw Sophie dominate once again securing an impressive 7-1 win to make the final. The final proved to be a cliff-hanger as she let a 4 points to 1 lead slip in the dying seconds as her opponent scored a 3-point jodan kick against her to
level the scores and take the final into one minute of extra time. But Sophie didn’t need one minute as she secured the decisive point for victory in her first attack to match Alex and take her second Gold of the day.
There was a further medal for Alex who teamed up with his friends, Ashley Watkins and Luke Howard from Jishin Karate. Alex opened up the proceedings for the team taking on his opponent from the final in his individual event. This time Alex
opened up even more and secured 7-1 win over his opponent. Unfortunately Alex’s team-mates from Jishin narrowly lost with Ashley losing 1-0 and Luke losing 5-4 meaning the team had to settle for Bronze.
All in all the kids did well all securing Gold in their individual events with Alex taking a further Bronze in team. Aimee just goes from strength to strength, her Katas looking more polished with each performance. Sophie’s Katas
looked absolutely unstoppable at Cardiff and she took a well-deserved gold for them. Alex doesn’t win a gold in Wales for two years and then get a double – typical. Well done to the trio and well done to the Welsh Karate Governing Body for organising another excellent and smoothly
run event. |
