Ken Yu Kai Karate - News & Results

At the recent EKF European Regional Championships in Slovenia, our rapidly growing association had five representatives flying the Ken Yu Kai flag. As usual, Ken Yu Kai Chief Instructor Terry Pottage was there in his newly re-elected role on the Referee commission along with Brian Noble, Vince Parker, Dave Robinson and Allan White who all officiated at the championships. After extensive theory and practical assessments followed assessments whilst officiating during the championships, the Ken Yu Kai officials put in some excellent performances with Vince Parker gaining promotion to EKF Kata Judge 'A' and Brian Noble gaining EKF Kata Judge 'B'.

With 2 World Officials, 4 European Officials, 7 England Officials and a large number of high quality Association officials, the Ken Yu Kai Referee programme provides the necessary stepping stone at grass roots level to progress to national and international qualifications.

Commonwealth Championships � Meadowbank, Edinburgh 30th May/1st June

It seems such a long time since the Ken Yu Kai squad has competed in Edinburgh, thinking back over twenty years "how old does that make me feel?". I've been lucky and travelled all over Europe and I still think Edinburgh is one of the most beautiful cities, especially on the Saturday with the sun shining down on us. It made a change travelling North instead of South to London for a major competition and certainly a lot more picturesque journey. In spite of the surroundings, a four hour drive is still a drag to compete. The venue this year was the Meadow Bank Stadium, a large venue and it needed to be because there was over 1200 competitors taking part. I knew we were in for a long weekend, despite the numbers the competition got off on time - ish !!!! and all six mats were utilized all day (and into the night!)
It was nice to see so many countries coming together from the commonwealth, countries that took part are as follows: England, Northern Ireland, Wales, South Africa, Canada, India, New Zealand, Botswana and obviously Scotland. It was announced over the tannoy that this was one of the most successful commonwealth championships ever, " I don't think so" - have we forgotten Manchester so soon? but still a fantastic effort.
Now it is time for a more negative side, as a former English International, I was embarrassed with the size of the English contingency in the Elite section and the lack of quality. Each country were able to put forward four athletes in each weight group but in true English arrogance, we entered just one. Yet another missed opportunity for International Competition, just on our doorstep. This would of being a great chance to put some of our younger competitors under pressure to see if they could fulfill some of their potential. "Am I the only coach who can see this"? * (certainly Ashleigh Kenny should have been in the elite kata section as she beat all the girls in the open section - what a farce!)
Anyway, back to more important matters. Ken Yu Kai as an association performed brilliantly despite one or two of our top athletes missing these championships through school exams which I feel are more of a priority, I hate to admit! The medal count was 5 Gold, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze.
Ashleigh Kenny got us off to the usual start with a gold in the ladies kata, one of only two kata medals in the kata section, the other a silver going to Natasha Holmes in the under 9 kata section. Linden Hamer and Aaron Kiernan were both very unfortunate missing out on the bronze medal positions but they still had to perform five katas. This amount of kata would usually win most competitions so it shows the size and quality of some of the sections. Linden bounced back in the kumite with a silver with a gutsy performance.
A great day though for the Kiernan brothers, with both Jake and Aaron winning gold in their kumite sections, I think Aaron was the most impressive fighter of the whole day, I was very happy to see some of the techniques we had been working on in our one to one lessons paying off, but I can't remember teaching him that spinning hook kick to win the final. Also a touch of class at the end, as the victory was given, raising his index finger to his dad in the crowd to remonstrate that he was the number one. Not to be outdone by his brothers performance, Jake managed to overcome Shaun Mulai in the final of his section, a gold and a silver, nothing like a little bit of healthy competition within Sale Dojo. I feel now that Shaun now is taking his rightful place as one of our elite fighters in are squad.
Josh Gagon took our final individual gold but I think by his standards he had quite a lack luster performance but still managed to get the win. At major championships it's all about titles not the performance, so you cannot take anything away from Josh.
Other noticeable performances in the kumite was a bronze by Christopher Williamson, Charlene Oakes and Natasha Holmes. For those who know me, know my favorite section is always the teams, as |feel this is not just for one person but for the whole squad and parents. The icing on the cake came when the girls Charlene Oakes, Natalie Payne and Kelly Horsfall won gold in the team event - Well Done Girls.

Report by Sensei Ian Swain, 5th Dan - Ken Yu Kai National Squad Coach

The EKF Referee Commissions' elections took place on May 1st at 7pm in the Sokos Hotel Viru. The 110 referees present voted for 3 members of the EKF RC who will stay in office until 2012 (4 year term).

The election procedure by secret ballot lasted for 1 hour and the results were as follows:

Terry Pottage (England) re-elected

Robert Hamara (Norway)

Giuseppe Zaccaro (Italy)

The entire procedure was supervised by Mr. G. Nordahl, EKF A' Vice-President.