English Karate Federation National Kyu Grade Championships 2017

On Sunday the 15th January, five Wado UK clubs attended the English Karate Federation Kyu Grade National Championships in Sheffield. For the final time, for the foreseeable future at least, the EKF held the competition at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre. At the event was the Chikara Dojo, the East Hull Woodford Dojo, the Kazoku Dojo, the Shinken Dojo and the Zanshin Dojo. Of the 25 competitors in attendance from our groups, 3 gold medals were won, along with 4 silver medals and 4 bronze medals. The medals were split between both the kata and kumite sections, with the specific detail being as follows;

Gold Medals

Shinken Junior Female kata team
Ellie Hayes Individual Kata
Jakub Lutwiejko Individual kumite

Silver Medals

Brad Emerson Individual Kata
Joshua Hartery Individual Kumite
Amrit Dhesi Individual Kumite
Paul Foster Veterans Kumite

Bronze Medals

Jakub Lutwiejko Individual Kata
Lauren Foster Individual Kata
Paul Foster Individual Kata
Paul Foster Individual Kumite

Future National competitions are all scheduled to be held at the Leicester Arena. This new facility offers tiered seating at both sides of the tatamis, which will offer a better view of the 6 tatami set up. Parking also promises to be easier, with a large 300 space car park on site. The National’s in April will be the first event held there, and will be a revised and streamlined with a reduced number of categories. The organisation of the event has now also changed hands from Paul Campbell to Bobby Morton. Time will tell if these changes are inspired moves, but hopefully this will turn out to be the case.

Well done to all of those who competed, medal success or otherwise. Thank you to all of the parents who gave up their Sunday to take their youngsters to the event, and of course to Paul Braid, Steve Balaam-Reed and Barry Meanwell for their coaching duties on the day.

Below are a selection of the photographs of our competitors. Current World Champion Jordan Thomas sneaking into two of them!