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 A small squad of five from Havering’s Shuhari-Kai Karate Club, competed in the Karate Classic Tournament being held as part of the
SENI08 Martial Arts exhibition in London’s Excel Centre. The tournament took place on Sunday 27th April 2008 commencing at around 10:00am with the Kata events.
Aimee Sell competed in the Mixed Kata (Patterned Forms), U16yrs, Black-Belt category. This was an extremely tough category featuring a host of current English National Champions and medallist with the majority much
older than 12 year old Aimee. She had set her sights on gaining a bronze medal, the best position she could realistically given the calibre in the 16 strong field. The category was judged on a points system with each competitors single Kata being scored by three judges. Aimee
was drawn roughly mid draw and performed Chatanyara Kushanku. She received a score of 7.2, 7.2 & 7.1 from the three judges totalling 21.5 which had put her into first place at that position. Following Aimee were some other strong Kata performances from Ishinryu’s Emma Lucraft,
Khalsa’s Rachel Newey, Ishinryu’s Mark Hansford, Toyakwai’s Kate Karwasinski to name but a few. Aimee fell to third place as some of the others performed their Katas extremely well but she hung on to third position in the face of stiff opposition to claim a nail-biting Bronze
medal.
Next up for the squad was Alex Sell competing in the Male Cadet 15-19yrs Open Kata category. Alex performed Suparimpei Kata and like all previous Kata categories, this was scored on point by three judges. Alex
received a score of 7.4, 7.4 & 7.3 from the judges totalling 22.1 which left him tied in first place with Gojo’s George Mole. Both had to perform a different Kata against each other to decide the winner. Alex decided to perform Unshu Kata and made a good choice as he beat
George by 0.1 scoring 7.4, 7.4 & 7.3 once again to claim Gold. Alex was very pleased with his performance as he had beaten current Cadet English National Kata champion, AMA’s Gareth Hains in the process.
However, Gareth got his revenge in the Senior Male 16yrs & Over Kata event. Alex chose to perform Suparimpei Kata once again in this event and scored 7.5, 7.3 & 7.1, totalling 22.0 from the judges. Although Alex had
received the highest individual score of the event (7.5) from one judge, overall Gareth had gained a higher overall total leaving Alex to settle for Silver this time.
The Kumite (Fighting) events soon got underway with both Aryan Ayerman and Callum Alboni competing in the Boys 4’0’’-4’5’’, 5th Kyu & Over category. Aryan
came unstuck in the opening round losing 8-0 in a tough match for him. Callum fared better as he won his opening round match to make the semi-finals. Unfortunately he could quite go that extra step and progress into the finals and settled for a good Bronze.
Ali Ayerman competed in the Boys 4’10’’-5’3’’. 5th Kyu & Over category and like his cousin Aryan, he bow out in the first
round. Ali did put up a good aggressive display but finally lost out 6-2.
Alex was the final squad member to compete in the Kumite events, competing in the Male Cadets, 15-19yrs, Open category. Alex did well in his opening round taking the fight to his WIKF rival and beating him comfortably in the end with a 4-1 win.
The next round saw Alex up against his finalist opponent form the English Nationals and Alex made sure he got the better of him once again as he won the fight 2-0 to make the semi-finals. The semi-final saw a rematch of the EKF Nationals Cadet Open Weight event with Alex v
Kazen-Kai’s Ryan Lambert. The fight went into extra time at 0-0 back then with Alex stealing the 1-0 win and it was the same story this time round with extra-time and Alex snatching the 1-0 win. It could have gone either way as both lads were evenly matched and either would
have been worthy finalists. However, it was Alex in the final against Khalsa’s Harry Cannon; Harry - EKF National U65kg Cadet Champion and England squad member versus Alex – EKF National U70kg Cadet Champion and England squad member. Once again a close fight with nothing to
choose between them in the early stages. The turning point came as Alex was accidentally bopped on the nose which started to bleed leading to Harry receiving a warning and a 1 point penalty. That opened up the lead for Alex who finally finished winning 5-2 taking Gold in a
thoroughly entertaining match.
The squad came away with 5 trophies, 2 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze with Alex taking the lions share (2 Gold & 1 Silver). Well done to all the squad who took time out to compete for the club.
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