February News 2010

British Karate Team League - 1st Leg Report

British Karate Team League 2010 The first of six battles in the British Karate Team League 2010 took place on the 6th February at Brunel University. The BKTL, a league organised by LKK, EKK and ELKAI, made a promising start with over thirty selected competitors facing each other throughout the event. The selected team from LKK consisted of; Female: Kata: 4th Kyu and below Emily Davis, 3rd Kyu plus Chloe Duce. Kumite: Maisie Raymond - 9yrs, Emily Appleby 12/13yrs,Chloe Duce 14/15yrs, Kelly Pender 16/17 yrs. Male: Kata: 4th Kyu and below Laurence Gill, 3rd Kyu Plus Sam Day. Kumite: Zak Coates 9yrs and under, Jack Appleby 10/11yrs, Mitchell Williams 12/13yrs, Jake Pickering 14/15yrs, Alex Nicolic 16/17yrs. Event Report: First section was the Kata with the five flag system in operation. Emily Davis: First round was up against EKK she had a very nervous start and unfortunately losing 5 flags to 0. The next round was against ELKAI where she managed a 4 flags to 1 win. Being first up for Emily and with a mix up with the music made it a hard start for Emily in her Kata event, but a major contributory factor was that she was carrying an injury. Chloe Duce: The only non Kata squad member to compete at this event she kindly stepped in to fill this section as we had no one to compete. Her first round was against EKK where she won 4 flags to 1, her second round was against ELKAI where she won 5 flags to 0 and was our only Kata competitor to shine. Laurence Gill: Laurence also had a nervous start making several basic mistakes his first round losing out to EKK 4 flags to 1, the second round against ELKAI winning 5 flags to 0. Sam Day: Sam also struggled at this event competing at 3rd Kyu plus was always going to be hard for Sam and he will need to up his game to compete against some top competitors. His first round was against EKK where he lost 4 flags to 1, the second round was against ELKAI where he won 5 flags to 0. Kumite Sections: Maisie Raymond: First round against EKK, this turned out to be a close fought fight between the 2 girls with points going both ways with Maisie losing out 8 - 6. With only 2 girls in this cat, they where both back on the mats for a second round rematch but this time the girl from EKK had learnt from the previous round and went on to win 11 - 4. Zak Coates: Zak proved to strong for both his competitors at this event his first round against EKK winning 4 – 1, second round against ELKAI winning 5 - 1. Zak controlled both rounds and won convincingly. Jack Appleby: Jack’s first round against EKK was a real battle and unfortunately Jack losing 8 – 7, second round was more convincing against ELKAI winning 8 – 1. Emily Appleby: Her first round against EKK where she won through 8 – 2, the second round against ELKAI was a much harder bout where the ELKAI girl showed her experience on the mats beating Emily 13 – 5. Mitchell Williams: Mitch proved once again to be one of LKK’s top competitors with only 2 competitors in the section but both boys top level fighters this proved to be an interesting group. The first round against EKK with Mitch winning 7 - 3 then straight back on the mats for a rematch which was much closer ending in a 2 all draw. Chloe Duce: Her first round against EKK winning 3 - 1 then against ELKAI where she won 9 – 0. Chloe excelled at this championship in both Kata and Kumite. Jake Pickering: Jake stepped up a group at this event it was an ideal chance to gain some experience. In his first round against EKK it was a 1 all draw, in his second round against ELKAI the movement of his competitor proved to much for Jake where he lost out 8 – 0. Kelly Pender: The girls in Kelly’s group proved to be far to experienced for Kelly and was up against it from the start in the first round against EKK losing out 7 – 2, she held her own a bit better in the second round losing out to ELKAI 2 – 1. Alex Nicolic: Alex proved too strong for his opponent went on to a convincing win over EKK 6 – 2. The overall report of the first British Karate Team League, most of our Katas competitors had a very shaky start but I'm sure we will do better at the next event. The Kumite sections, with only a few competing to their full ability, a lot of our squad showed their inexperience but hopefully we will all learn from this for the next event. RESULTS: LKK: Gold 5, Silver 6, Bronze 3 EKK: Gold 5, Silver 6, Bronze 3 ELKAI: Gold 4, Silver 2, Bronze 8

Tigers pass with Merit

Some of the young members of the Links Tiger class were assessed for their next tiger grades. The assessment which takes place during the Tiger sessions where the children get to show the skills they have been learning in a relaxed and familiar atmosphere while still having fun within the structure of the normal session without the pressure of a formal grading. Harry Lancaster Tiger Blue, Trinityfaye Lucas Tiger Blue, Mackenzie Lucas Tiger Blue, Johnny Grosvenor Tiger Red, Jack Lofts Tiger Red, Adam Hayhoe Tiger Red, Phillipa Dowton Tiger Red, Harry Moore Tiger Red, Alistair Wainford Tiger Red. This is a Karate class designed for the 3 to 5 year olds. The class which is held every Thursday at Clacton Leisure Centre at 4.15 is proving to be a successful way to introduce younger children into a sport, which promotes fitness whilst learning basic Karate skills and discipline's. The children are taught in small groups by our fully qualified female instructors.

Picture from left;
Top row: Johnny Grosvenor, Jack Lofts Adam Hay Hoe, Phillipa Dowton, Mackenzie Lucas.
Bottom row: Alistair Wainford, Trinityfaye Lucas, Harry Lancaster, Harry Moore.

East of England Karate Championships

LKK Squads had a busy weekend, with the A Squad attending the AMA International in Sheffield it was down to our B Squad members who attended the East of England Championships at Josephs College Ipswich on the 28th February.

Most of them are relative beginners but they were up for the challenge ahead. Steve Naylor kindly stepped in to coach the team of 10 competitors on the day. This is an ideal Championship to help gain the necessary experience of competing and hopefully they will be some of our stars of the future.

Results:

Kata:

Gold: Harry Blundell, Ben Jones
Silver: Toby Tweed, Rhian Duffy
Bronze: Kayleigh Mead, Fenella Stuart

Kumite:

Gold: Kayleigh Mead
Silver: Tia Hutchings, Ben Jones, Maisie Raymond, Rhian Duffy, Josh Pickering
Bronze: Alex Shiers, Fenella Stuart, Ciara Duffy

Medals:

Gold: 3
Silver: 7
Bronze: 5

Team: Harry Blundell, Toby Tweed, Kayleigh Mead, Ben Jones, Rhian Duffy, Fenella Stuart, Tia Hutchings, Alex Shiers, Callum Crozier, Maisie Raymond, Ciara Duffy, Josh Pickering.

AMA INTERNATIONAL 2010

The Links Karate Kai Team travelled to Sheffield to compete in the Amateur Martial Arts International Championships, which is held at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield, on the 27th and 28th of February.

The selected team members were selected from our venues at Dovercourt, Gt Holland, Clacton and Wix. The AMA Championship is a prestigious event and with over 900 entrants and 20 different Nations including Iran, Belgium and Kuwait. It is always worth the journey.

Saturday the 27th February saw our Junior competitors in action, first up for the LKK team was Sam Day in the Boys 10-15yrs 3rd-1st Kyu Kata section. This is a new experience for Sam competing in this section but he managed to pull out all the stops progressing through the rounds to the final where he meet the competitor from Belgium and had to settle for the Silver on this occasion.

Lincon Pretlove in the Boys 9yrs and below open grade showed once again to be a top competitor fighting to his best in this hard category taking the Bronze medal.

Emily Appleby in the Girls 12-13yrs +45kg breezed to the final only dropping 1 point on the way had to settle for the Silver as she had to withdraw due to injury after the semi finals.

Mitchell Williams in the Boys 12-13yrs -45kg stepped up on to the podium to take the Gold medal after several close and hard fights.

Chloe Duce was on top form at this event competing in the Girls 14-15yrs team helping them to win the Silver medal. In her individual event 14-15yrs -53kg with some top level competitors in this section she fought to her very best to win the Bronze medal.

The second Sunday the 28th of February saw our Senior team in action, first the LKK Ladies team; Loren Cook, Emily Griffiths and Kelly Pender taking a well deserved Bronze.

Loren Cook excelled herself at these championships, first of all competing in her own section Senior Ladies -68kg where she took the title and Gold medal in this section. She was also entered in the Senior Ladies open weight so she had to leave her mat after the final and then fight five straight rounds finally losing out in the final and had to settle for the Silver as she had nothing left to give.

Emily Griffiths in the Senior Ladies -50kg took the Gold in her event which ended a good championship for the LKK Team.

Medals:

Gold: 3
Silver: 4
Bronze: 3

Team: Zak Coates, Laurence Gill, Lincon Pretlove, Ethon Day, Sam Day, Jack Appleby, Emily Appleby, Chloe Duce, Kelly Pender, Loren Cook, Emily Griffiths, Josh Crooks.