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 The Danson Junior Open (the forerunner to the Meopham Junior Open after its relocation and obvious name change) benefited from being a small, well run competition with a good high quality field always taking part. the Meopham Open has
generally kept the same format and just as popular still attracting some high calibre competitors. The popular Kata format was brought over from the old Danson days and although a few tweaks to the categories have made, the competition is just as tough, if not tougher as the
standard of Kata definitely seems to have gone up in recent years. The competition held on Sunday 16th July saw the same categories as the previous comp back in March with the usual suspects there, although there seemed to be more competitors from Ishunryu in
attendance this time round. Also, there were some competitors who had recently been graded, so the once sparsely fielded Dan grade Kata category had a good crop of entrants this time.
Results – Kata
Gold - Aimee Sell. Competing in the Mixed 1st Kyu category she scored 21.6 from the three judges for her Seienchin Kata. Into the last four as top qualifier she performed Nipaipo in her semi-final winning 2 flags
to 1. Aimee took Gold in the final winning 3-0 with her Annan Kata.
Silver – Jodie Miles. Competing in the Dan Grade Kata she scored 21.8 for her Bassia-Dai Kata. Through to the final four as one of the highest points scorer she performed Annan Kata winning 2 flags to 1. Jodie
performed Unshu in the final but lost 3-0 settling for Silver.
Bronze – Jade Lewis. Competing in the same category as Aimee, she made the final four scoring 21.4 for her Seienchin Kata. Jade performed Nipaipo Kata in the semi-final but lost out 3-0 claiming Bronze.
Initial Rounds – Sophie Roberts competed in the Dan Grade category along side Jodie and scored 21.5 for her Seipai Kata unfortunately leaving her just outside of the final top four placings. Brandon
Halling performed Pinan Nidan in the Novice-7th Kyu category scoring 20.7 leaving outside of the top four final placings. Billie Lowry, Jordan Hodges and Callum Alboni all competed in the 6th-4th Kyu
category and all failed to make the final medal rounds finishing outside of the top four. Billie scored 20.7 for her Pinan Sandan, Jordan also scored 20.7 for his Pinan Godan whilst Callum scored 20.6 for his Pinan Nidan Kata.
Results – Kumite
Gold – Jade Lewis. Competing in the Girls 12-13yrs category she secured a 1st round bye propelling her straight into the semi-final where she secured victory with a 10-2 win. Gold was automatically awarded
to her after her opponent pulled out due to an injury sustained in her earlier fight.
Gold – Sophie Roberts. Competing in the Girls 14-15yrs category, Sophie received a 1st round bye which secured her place in the semi-finals. Sophie won her semi-final match with a 4-1 win. The final was a
lot closer and Sophie did enough to secure Gold winning the match 5-4.
Bronze – Beau Hogan. Beau secured a 1st round bye but won the 2nd round match 6-1. Beau made the semi-final but was unlucky to lose out 5-3 and had to settle for Bronze.
2nd Round – Billie Lowry. After winning her opening round 3-1 after her opponent was disqualified for excessive contact, Billie lost her 2nd round match 11-3 leaving her just outside of the medal
placings. Just outside too was Ali Ayerman who also suffered a 2nd round defeat losing 5-3 following his 1st round bye.
1st Round – Brandon Halling, Callum Alboni, Aryan Ayerman, Jordan Hodges, Andrew Ayerman and Vishaal Dovedi all failed to make it past the 1st round in their
categories. Brandon lost out 6-4 in a close match, Callum lost out 4-3 in a even closer affair. Jordan lost out 7-3 in uncharacteristic fashion, Andrew lost out 7-4 and Aryan was comprehensively beaten losing 9-1. Vishaal just failed to beat his opponent losing 5-4 in yet
another close match which didn’t go our way this time round.
The squad ended the day with 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronzes. Well done to everyone who competed at this event.
Squad: Callum Alboni, Ali Ayerman, Andrew Ayerman, Aryan Ayerman, Vishaal Dovedi, Brandon Halling, Beau Hogan, Jordan Hodges, Jade Lewis, Billie Lowry, Jodie Miles, Sophie Roberts and Aimee Sell. |