Chojinkai Junior Championships March 2015
As anticipated our squad for this one was decimated following the incredibly late finish at last year's event. Only one competitor made the journey this year, Ellis Miller from the Hull Zanshin Dojo traveled to Penrith to compete. Thankfully the day was as promised an earlier finish at around 6.30pm, and to add some icing to the top of the cake Ellis managed to bag one silver and four bronze medals throughout the course of the day.
In his first event he was among other hopefuls taking to the mat to display their kata skills. He clearly impressed the judges en route as he found himself in the final alongside Ellie Payne of Yanagi-Kai. It didn't go Ellis's way on this occasion but he shouldn't be too disappointed as Ellie is very experienced and a very good Kata competitor. Well done to both youngsters.
Kumite was next for Ellis, and in both his -40kg section along with moving up to the +40kg section also, he managed to add two bronze medals to his growing collection. Achieving the same result in each division, a semi final position, gave him opportunities of silver or better. However this was to be his final round for the day and he did himself proud winning these two matching bronze medals, one in each of the weight divisions.
This should have been the end of the day for Ellis but having traveled the distance we had a chat with a few of the local clubs and managed to make up a Pairs and Team kata which included him. This wasn't expected to deliver a great deal as they hadn't even met each other before the day of the comp, let alone trained and practiced together. However a small amount of success in each meant that he finished his day off with a further bronze medal from each of the events. A very pleasing little by product of making friends as we travel the country.
Well done on a long but rewarding day's work Ellis! Thanks also to Gaynor Dent for coaching Ellis on the day and to Sue and Shaun for taking him up to Penrith.