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 The forth edition of the Malta Classic International Karate Championships were held on Saturday 3rd March 2007 at the Savio College Sports Complex, Dingli, Malta. Alex and
Aimee Sell from Shuhari-Kai Karate Club joined forces with some of their English colleagues from Toyakwai and Ishinryu to take on the 14 countries, Germany, Italy, England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, Tunis, Cyprus, Austria, Scotland, Palestine, Serbia, Poland and, of course,
Malta also competing. The pair did extremely well to come home with 4 GOLDS and 1 SILVER between them.
Competing in the Mixed 9-11yrs, 3rd Kyu and Over Kata category was Aimee. All Kata events were judged on points by three judges with the highest points total gaining gold. Aimee performed Annan Kata and scored the top mark from the judges securing her
Gold. Alex competed in the Mixed 12-15yrs, 3rd Kyu and Over and performed Suparimpei Kata. After the final competitor had finished, Alex was tying in joint 1st place with Khalsa Karate's Harry Cannon. Both boys had perform another Kata, Alex performing Chatanyara Kushanku
with Harry performing Unshu. Remarkably both boys tied once more and so it went to flags for a knockout contest. Alex came out on top this time as Harry made a mistake in his Kata handing victory and Gold to Alex.
The Freestyle Kata events soon got underway with Aimee competing in the Mixed 10-12yrs event. Aimee was the last to take to the mat and performed a tremendous Kata with ended in rapturous applause and another Gold to boot. Well done Aimee. Ishinryu's
Jonathan Mottram also collected gold in the senior freestyle Kata event to add to his individual senior Kata gold won earlier during the day.
The Kumite events eventually started with Alex competing in the Boys 14-15yrs event. Alex won his opening round 6-0 and followed this victory up with a 7-0 win. The semi-final saw Alex make the final after claiming a 4-2 victory. The final was a much closer
affair with Alex facing James Nash from Kazen. The scores were tied at 2-2 and one minute of extra time couldn't separate them and so the decision went to the judges. James won by a 2 flags to 1 decision leaving Alex to settle for Silver this time.
Alex then joined forces with his Toyakwai colleagues, George Anderson and Charlie Hurley, to compete in the Junior Team Kumite event. The 1st round saw the boys face a 2-man team leaving George without a fight. Charlie was the first of the boys up but his
match ended in a 3-0 loss leaving Alex needing to secure a win to ensure progress. Alex made no mistakes as he secured an emphatic 9-0 win the see the team into the semi-finals. The first semi-final match saw George in action. George secured a great 6-0 win against a much
bigger opponent to get the team off to a flying start. Charlie was unlucky in his next fight as he narrowly lost 3-1 in a close match. Once again Alex needed to secure a win to progress the team into the final and he did so in style once again winning by 8 clear points with a
10-2 victory. The final saw little George start brightly once again and gave the team a brilliant start by beating his opponent 5-2. Charlie up next suffered an injury almost immediately and had to be carried off. Alex was called into action once more he didn't let his
team-mates down as he secured the final victory 9-4 that was to secure the boys team Gold.
The day was a huge success which saw everybody pulling together and rooting for each other. Joe Anderson's Toyakwai's team secured the Team of the day' trophy beating Chris Galea's Malta team by a few points to round off an excellent day. Our best wishes go
out to Harry Cannon who suffered a broken nose in his Kumite event. He received a fracture in two places and ended the evening in hospital missing out on the final trophy presentation.
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