 Well the first tournament of 2006 is out of the way and although we saw some good performances, the squad come home practically empty handed with a solitary bronze earned in team Kumite. This
was the first major tournament for some squad members with Shane Mitchell and Elle Ayerman experiencing their first big competition, and Aimee Sell and Jade Lewis competing in this
competition for the first time. We also saw a return to competition from Lawrence Grosvenor who's been out of action for a while taking a break for his studies.
Aimee Sell was unlucky in contracting a cold the week before the tournament and although she was well enough to compete, her Katas were not up to her usual standard with her stances being out and too little power in her performance. Aimee won her first round 3-0 with
Bassai-Dai although her opponent was disqualified for performing a non-compulsory Kata. The second round saw Aimee narrowly scrape through with a 2 flags to 1 win with Seienchin. The semi-final saw Aimee make an exit as her Nipaipo Kata was beaten by the eventual winner. This left
Aimee with a shot of bronze in the repechage round but she lost out 2-1 as her Annan Kata was beaten by a good Chatanyara Kushanku.
Sophie Roberts, competing in the 14-15yrs Kata event, made a first round exit losing 3 flags to 0 with her Bassai-Dai Kata even though her Kata did look sharp. Jade Lewis matched Sophie in the 12-13yrs event, with first round exit too after losing 2-1 with her
Seienchin. Once again her Kata was good but the decision just went against her.
We certainly didn't have any luck on our side this time and this was no more obvious when Alex Sell's first round opponent was non other than the Latvian competitor who beat him in the final of the Venice Cup in December. His Kanku-Dai was almost flawless and Alex's
Bassai-Dai was soundly beaten 3-0. Shane Mitchell did make the second round but only after receiving a first round bye in the 12-13yrs event. The second round saw Shane perform Seienchin and was unlucky to lose 2-1.
Finally Jodie Miles took to the mat in the 12-13yrs event and looking in fine form stormed to a 3-0 win with her opening Seienchin Kata. The next round saw Jodie surprisingly lose out as her Bassai-Dai Kata was beaten 3-0 to the eventual winner. In repechage, Jodie won her
first round 3-0 with Seipai but lost out in the next as her Nipaipo lost 3-0. Like Aimee earlier, Jodie had just missed out on a medal by one round.
The individual Kumite events didn't produce any medal either but their were a few near misses. Alex Sell narrowly missed out on a medal in the 14-15yrs U55kg event. Alex won his first round 3-2 then won the second round 7-6 pulling back the points in the dying seconds. Alex
then won the next round 7-3 with some wonderful techniques but was unfortunately disqualified in the fourth round just short of a medal position. Alex caught his opponent on the nose within the first 30 seconds and was given a 'Hansoku Chui' final warning straight away after making
the nose bleed. Inevitably Alex received another contact warning with 3 seconds remaining on the clock after barely touching his opponent whilst trying to fend off and last-dash attempt to score, but as his nose started to bleed, but the referee had no option to disqualify him ending
his medal hopes.
Shane Mitchell had a tough group and gained some valuable experience in the 12-13yrs U55kg event. Although Shane lost 2-0 he applied all the pressure in the fight and was unlucky to get caught by two Gyakuzuki punches. Sophie Roberts couldn't reproduce her winning
form of last year this time as she was unlucky to go out in round one. Leading 3-0 with a few seconds remaining, she was caught with a Jodan Mawashigeri kick which levelled the scores. The fight went into extra time and Sophie's opponent was the first to score leaving Sophie empty
handed this time round.
Another first round casualty was Dean Bannister in the Cadets 16-17ys U60kg event. Dean lost out to an England squad member 3-0 but wasn't afraid to mix it up with him. Lawrence Grosvenor also bowed out in round one in the 18-20yrs 80+kg event. Lawrence hadn't
competed for a while and what an opponent to land on his return, a 6'7'' giant who make Lawrence look tiny. Lawrence found it hard to break down his opponent and lost out 4-1 in the end. Welcome back 'Big G'.
Jodie Mile did make more progress in the 12-13yrs U50kg event after winning her opening round 4-1. However, she lost her next round 4-0 to the eventual finalist but made repechage as a result. Repechage round one saw Jodie win 3-1 but once again she was just one round short
of a medal again as she lost out 3-0 in the next round to end her medal hopes again. After waiting around about 8 hours, Jade Lewis finally had her opportunity to compete in the 12-13yrs U40kg event. Unfortunately Jade went out in her opening round after losing
3-0.
The squad did have two teams competing in the Kumite events, the Girls 14-15yrs team and a 14-15yrs Boys team. Elle Ayerman teamed up with Sophie Roberts and Rebecca Witt for the girls team but they failed to medal. The team received a first round bye but lost
out in round two. Sophie opened up for the team winning 3-0 but Rebecca Witt lost out 6-2 to tie the wins at 1-1. This left Elle with all the pressure of trying to secure the win but she lost out 8-2. The girls did make repechage and Sophie started first once again for the team. This
time however, Sophie narrowly lost 3-2. Next up was Kelly Cooney who replaced Rebecca who was injured in her individual event. Kelly won her fight 1-0 to level the fights 1-1. Once again it was left to Elle to compete but she lost out once more losing 4-1 following a hard knock to
her nose. That left Elle unable to compete in her individual event as her nose was still bleeding after half-an-hour or so.
The boys team was made up of Alex Sell, James Witt and Alex Little. The boys won their first round match with Alex Little drawing 6-6, James winning 8-0 and Alex winning 3-0. The second round saw them narrowly lose with Alex Little losing 7-2, James Witt
winning 3-1 and Alex losing 3-2. The boys did make repechage and took charge in round one. Competing against a two-man team, Alex Little faced no opponent in the first match. Alex competed in the second and won 2-0 giving the team a decisive victory leaving James with no need to
fight. The next round for Bronze saw another two-man team against them. Alex Little secured a 1-1 draw in the first match and Alex won the next match 8-0 to once again secure victory and leave James without a fight. This was enough to secure a well deserved bronze for the team and
our only medal of the tournament.
Ignoring the fact that we didn't come away with a medal haul this time, the squad put in some good performances and on another day the decisions could have gone their way. But it's not all about medals at this stage of their Karate careers for most of them, it's about competing,
experiencing, improving and learning, and so it was a good tournament for the new and young squad members to experience.
Squad: Elle Ayerman, Dean Bannister, Lawrence Grosvenor, Jade Lewis, Jodie Miles, Shane Mitchell, Sophie Roberts, Aimee Sell, Alex Sell.
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