 Aimee Sell travelled to Salzburg, Austria, to compete in the Austrian Junior Open Championships. Aimee plus mum flew out to Salzburg early Friday morning of 16th June 2006, on her birthday, to arrive nice and early so as to take in some of
the city before the competition stated the following day. After checking into the hotel, they set off for a trip into town and then ended the day at the local zoo, basking in the glorious heat of the afternoon sun. Then it was an early dinner on their return to the hotel and an
early night in preparation for the competition the following day.
Saturday saw Aimee register for her category and join her waiting competitors in the area away from the mats. As six mats were in use, Aimee's category, the Girls 10-11yrs Kata event, was called to the mats fairly quickly. The category was split into two pools with the
winner of each pool going into the final head-to-head.
Aimee performed her opening Kata, Bassai-Dai, to good effect winning all 3 flags from the judges. The next round saw Aimee perform Nipaipo and once again won the round 3 flags to nil. The quarter-final saw a tougher match as Aimee's Seienchin Kata come up against a
Chatanyara Kushanku Kata. Aimee's Kata proved too good and once again she won the round 3 flags to nil. Now in the pool final, overall semi-final, Aimee had the chance to go second as she was blue this round. Aimee's opponent performed Annan Kata and Aimee got the chance to
match her with her own performance of Annan Kata. Aimee topped off her fine performance with yet another 3 flags to nil win to make the final.
After the completion of the other pool in her category, the two finalists came together to perform their Katas in front of the five-man panel. Aimee performed Seipai Kata while her Italian opponent performed Bassai-Dai. The decision went 3 flags to 2 in favour of Aimee's
opponent leaving Aimee to settle for Silver in this extremely close final. That was still a terrific result for Aimee who had this great opportunity to gauge her level of Kata against some fine European competitors. Well done Aimee. |
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