SENI07 Karate Classic Championships   What a fantastic day at SENI07. This year’s festival of Martial Arts was held in the Excel Centre in London for the first time and ran from Friday 18th May through to Sunday 21st May 2007. The venue proved popular and large enough to house a large number of trade stands, demonstration areas, boxing rings and matted Martial Art tournament areas. One such area which drew large crowds of supporters and onlookers held the Karate Classic Open International Tournament which had well over 300 competitors in attendance.  The senior Male Kumite event had that bit of extra spice to it this time as it was sanctioned as a 10K Eliminator event too to make the draw and crowd even bigger.   The Shuhari-Kai Karate Squad of eight braved the crowds and spotlight on this showcase tournament to go head-to-head with their peers in order to gain the Seni07 Classic Karate crown. With four matted area set aside for this tournament, the tournament ran through in quite good time given the number of entries in some of the categories giving the participants and audience plenty of time to explore, visit and watch the many stands and displays on offer throughout the day at the festival.   The first events to get underway were the Kata events, all scored on a points system with a single Kata being scored by three judges. Competing in the Mixed U4’10”, 6-4th Kyu category was our youngest competitor, Callum Alboni. Callum performed a good Pinan Shodan and scored 6.6, 6.6 & 6.5 from the three judges which totalled 19.7. Unfortunately this score was to leave Callum outside of the medal positions on this occasion.   The Mixed U4’10”, 3-1st Kyu category saw our ‘Triple Crown’ champion, Aimee Sell, fresh back from the previous days British National Championships where she reclaimed her title, back in action. Aimee was drawn second to perform which is always a big disadvantage in a large field but she performed her Chatanyara Kushanku Kata well scoring 7.3, 7.3 & 7.2 from the three judges totalling 21.8. That score was good enough to land her the Silver medal with Khalsa’s Jack Newey beating her with his own impressive Kata. Still top girl was not bad for her.   Shane Mitchell was competing in the Mixed Over 4’10”, 3-1st Kyu category and was up against some very good competitors with a spluttering of overseas opponents to contend with too. Shane took the opportunity to perform Chatanyara Kushanku Kata which he has been working on recently. Shane scored 7.2, 7.2 & 7.1 from the three judges totalling 21.5. Unfortunately this left Shane just outside of the medal positions but he took away some positive feedback for his performance. The title went to Jack’s sister, Rachel Newey who once again looked in tremendous form.   Up next to perform was Alex Sell, and like Aimee, was recently back from the British National Championships where he secured a Bronze medal. Alex competed in the Mixed Over 4’10”, Dan Grade category and once again had some strong opposition in the field to contend with. Alex performed a superb Suparimpei Kata to secure a score 7.4, 7.3 & 7.1 from the judges totalling 21.8. The category ended in a tie for 1st place with Ishinryu’s Emma Lucraft also gaining a score of 21.8. Unusually the judges denied them a play-off and awarded Alex the Gold as he secured the highest individual score, 7.4 to Emma’s 7.3. Shame really as it would have been good to see both of them showcase another one of their great repertoire of Katas. Ishinryu’s Mark Hansford secured the Bronze in this event and that was basically the Havering Karate Kata team to compete in next months London Youth Games along with Aimee Sell who completes an amazingly strong line-up.   One of the most highly contested and difficult categories was the senior Kata events and Sophie Roberts, who’s recently turned 16yrs old, found herself up against current and former national squad members and national champions. Sophie was certainly up against it and pulled out all the stops in her performance of Annan Kata. Sophie scored 7.2, 7.1 & 7.0 from the three judges but her score of 21.3 wasn’t quite good enough on the day to beat her rivals into a medal position but still great to compete in such a high calibre event and give her opponents a run for their money.   The team Kata events were up next with Aimee joining forces with Jack and Rachel Newey, both category winners with Aimee runner-up, so was a medal in this event on the cards? Well they had to compete against the rest of the Havering Kata squad as Alex had teamed up with Emma Lucraft and Mark Hansford, the top three in the Dan grade category. Alex’s team was the 2nd or 3rd team to compete in the Junior Team Kata event which saw a strong field with at least two European teams competing. The team’s performance of Bassai-Dai saw them take a narrow lead as the judges awarded them scores of 7.6, 7.3 & 7.2 totalling 22.1. Aimee’s team performed Annan Kata extremely well and scored 7.3, 7.3 & 7.1 from the judges totalling 21.7 which left them in 3rd place overall. Another fantastic result for the two teams, Gold and Bronze, who are all specifically tutored in Kata by Britain’s number one, Jonathan Mottram. They are all certainly amongst finest Kata exponents in the country at present and got a good chance to shine at this showpiece event. Mottram's marauders march on.   Kumite next and a chance for the remaining squad members to shine and another chance for those who missed out on Kata medal to take home some silverware. The Boys U4'10", 5th Kyu & Over saw Callum Alboni in action once more and having missed out on a Kata medal was keen not to go home empty handed. Callum received a 1st round bye entering the event in round 2. Callum fought well picking off his opponent and secured a place in the semi-final with a 6-3 victory. The semi-final proved a very close affair and went all the way to the wire with Callum leading but he was caught with a Jodan Mawashigeri kick in the last second and had victory snatched from his grasp losing 7-8. Callum had to settle for Bronze but he made sure he had his memento of the day.   Next up in the Boys 4'10" & Over, 5th Kyu & Over category featuring Shane Mitchell, Ali Ayerman and Andrew Ayerman. Ali was the first of the trio to take to the mat and was unlucky from the off facing a tough opponent. Ali managed to score a point but his opponent reached the maximum 8 before he could respond further leaving Ali as a 1st round casualty. Not wanting to suffer the same fate both Shane and Andrew made it past the 1st round to secure semi-finals places. Shane had a close fight but came through victorious with the narrowest of margins winning 6-5.  Andrew fared a little better than Shane as he out fought his opponent to secure a more comfortable 7-4 win. The semi-final saw the unluckiest of draws, Shane v Andrew. Both boys fought really well with the lead swinging one way then the other. Near the end Andrew pulled out a 2 point lead and held on to the end taking the win 5-3 leaving Shane to claim a Bronze medal. Andrew faced Ishinryu's Mark Hansford in the final and even though he took the fight to Mark, he got picked off too often with the match ending 8-2 against Andrew. Andrew did collect Silver for his trouble which was a good result so well done boys.   The Boys 5'3" & Over, 5th Kyu & Over category saw Alex Sell aiming to claim his third medal of the day and he got off to a good start winning his opening fight 7-0. Alex's next opponent looked a bit tougher than his last opponent but once again Alex made light work to reach the final winning his match 8-0. The final proved a lot tougher and the scores remained really close. Alex had the upper hand but a bad scoring decision by the ref ignoring his judges opinions handed the lead to his opponent. Alex tried to regain the lead but time ran out leaving Alex with Silver and his 3rd medal of the day - another good days work from this young England potential.   Last up from the squad was Sophie Roberts who once again showed great spirit in entering the Female 16-19yrs Open category remembering that Sophie has just recently turned 16 years old. Sophie's first fight was close with Sophie taking an early lead. Her opponent levelled the score by Sophie kept regaining the lead. Just as it looked like Sophie was going to win, her opponent scored 3 successive points in quick succession to grab victory with a 8-6 score line leaving Sophie empty handed but pleased at her performance none the less. Well done Sophie, just a little unlucky this time.   And with that the tournament was over for the squad who then had the chance to relax, watch the remaining events, the 10K Clash eliminator included, and visit the exhibition. The day was great, plenty to do, lots to see and everyone came away proud of their achievements, medals or not.