South Yorkshire Open 2010

On 1st August 2010, 28 members of the Wado-UK traveled to the Hillsborough Leisure Centre in Sheffield, for the annual South Yorkshire Open. This competition is organised by the Sukoshi-Ryu Karate group along with the Shindo Kai Karate Association and is now one of the regular tournaments on the Wado UK calendar. This particular tournament offers Quality opposition for all ages, as well as the event being what you could term local.

Not our best photographic offering on the website, but it does at least show some of the medallists and competitors from the day.

With so many competitors in attendance, it was always going to be a logistical problem for the coaches. This was compounded prior to the event with an accident which left Allison Munro with a broken ankle and an illness which prevented Paul Braid from attending. The coaches managed to get the job done though, with all competitors being at the right area for their events. Our only late arrival (Due to train times) was Hasan Zorba, who missed his Kata event. Coaching duties for the day fell to Steve Balaam-Reed, Andy Barratt, Allison Munro (With a broken ankle) and Barry Meanwell, who was also competing.

from a competitors point of view the day went well. The group managed medals in both the Kata and Kumite categories, with a couple of team medals in the Kumite also. The best of the early medals going to Jack Stoddart and Amber Oetegenn, who won a silver each in their respective Kata divisions. This was bolstered however with bronze medal wins from Harry Oetegenn, Joe Munro and Teerth Dhesi.

Following the Kata events, the focus of the competition turned to Kumite. The best result as usual went to Barry Meanwell with gold in both his senior men's divisions. This double gold achievement was a special moment for Barry despite the fact he has achieved the feat before.
He wasn't to be the only medallist in the senior divisions though, joining him on the rostrum on one occasion was club-mate Chris Fenton. Chris had managed to add another bronze medal to the days tally, following his semi-final. Both Woodford competitors would have met in the final if Chris had managed just one more win.

Individual medals came from the younger competitors too. Amy Newton and Mia Cowles were probably the youngest, the pair adding a bronze each to the ever increasing haul. For the boys Ragen Allitt added another bronze medal to his personal collection. This was consolidated with further bronze medal performances from Jessica Newton and Ashleigh Clarkson.

The team events would add our last medals of the day, these would also be bronze in colour too. Teams of Thomas Ward, Amy Newton and Temi Lowery would win one of them in the boys and girls mixed gender section. The other was won by the boys 13-15yrs section team of Harry Oetegenn, Joe Munro and Andrew Parker.

At the end of the competition, Wado-UK finished with a total of; 2 Gold 2 Silver and 8 Bronze Medals!

Other students who took part were, Bethany Holmes, Charlotte Pinder, Hasan Zorba, Loretta Wendt, Matthew March, Megan Baterbee, Thomas Balaam-Reed and Yomi Lowery.

Thanks to everyone for representing Wado-UK.

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