English Open Karate Championships - 17th May 2009 (by Kerry Gunn)

Another good competition for Kaizen Central. We took a squad of 18 and came out of it with 8 golds, 2 silvers and 7 bronzes. Firstly I would like to say well done to everyone. I know that even though some people didn’t get the results they wanted you all gave 100% like Jake. He unfortunately went out in the first round but definitely didn’t deserve to. Even though things didn’t go Jake’s way this time it still doesn’t change the fact that he is one to watch in the future.

I would like to give a special mention to our junior squad. They may be the most inexperienced members of the squad but every single one of them did the whole squad proud this weekend.

The first medal of the day came from our kata team which consists of Michaela, Aaliyah and Azizah. They were competing against teams that were a lot more experienced and older than them and still they got a 3rd place.

Michaela unfortunately didn’t get a medal in her individual kata but still performed a very good kata. Michaela was upset about not winning a medal but I think she should be proud of herself as she is improving with every competition she does.

Azizah, the youngest member of the squad, did very well in her kata group, she went against her older sister and won which earned her a gold medal. Aaliyah wasn’t very happy with coming 2nd to her sister in the kata but soon made up for it in her kumite event. She fought a lot better than she did the week before, in fact she looked like a completely different person, and won her group.

Malik did brilliantly at this competition. It was only his 2nd competition and he came away with a 2nd place in kata and a 3rd place in kumite.

Kamran is another member of the squad that hasn’t done many competitions and even though he didn’t get a medal he still fought very well.

Last but not least I want to say well done to Tommy, who recently came out of his very short retirement, to receive a bronze medal. Tommy, who always fights with lots of spirit, fought better than I have seen him fight before (maybe that had something to do with Amy coaching him).

I would like to say something about everyone but it would take too long. Well done again to everyone and I know that we as a squad are going to get better and stronger with every competition we do.

Results

Gold
Azizah Fadare (kata)
Aaliyah Fadare (kumite)
Whitney Rose (kumite)
Amy Thomason (kumite)
14/15yr women’s kumite team (Monique Etienne & Sarria Joseph)
Women’s kumite team (Amy Thomason, Carla Burkitt & Kerry Gunn)
16/17yrs men’s kumite team (Jordan Thomas, Keanu Mayhew & Michael Burke)
Men’s kumite team (John Anderson, Jordan Thomas, Michael Burke & Tunde Fadare)

Silver
Malik Fadare (kata)
Aaliyah Fadare (kata)

Bronze
Michael Burke (kata & kumite)
Malik Fadare (kumite)
Keanu Mayhew (kumite)
Tommy Langley (kumite)
Carla Burkitt (kumite)
Kata team (Aaliyah Fadare, Azizah Fadare & Michael Kemp)

SENIOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (BY AMY THOMASON)

Well after a week’s pre-training in Birmingham, I headed off to Zagreb, Croatia for the European Championships. I competed in the individual -68kg kumite on Friday and in the Women’s team kumite on the Sunday.

In the individual category, I won my first round 3-1, the one point given away from my contact warnings. I got all my points from counters and was feeling really good and in form. My next round was against Greece, whom I lost to 1-0. I was obviously gutted to not go through especially when feeling like I could do something pretty good. The Greek girl lost to France in the semi so I missed out on repercharge although she did end up 3rd, but of no help to me.

In the teams with Natalie Williams, Katie Hurry and Gemma Marwood, we were all feeling confident after Natalie and Katie had medalled in their individual events. We had Serbia first round, which we won. Personally, I fought second and drew 1-1 although I was up 1-0 for the majority of the match so was disappointed to let my opponent get it back. In the second round, we had the Swiss, whom we lost to unfortunately. Katie drew first, before Natalie lost on penalties so it was up to me to chase down the final win – which I couldn’t do, losing 2-0. I was obviously gutted, especially feeling like I had let the team down.

Overall though, I wasn’t overly disappointed with the competition, as I had fought well and have come away with more belief and confidence in knowing that I could potentially medal at one of the top comps in the World.

Just want to say though, thanks to everyone for the texts and everything whilst I was away especially with messages of support. It really meant a lot. Cheers.

MEOPHAM OPEN SUNDAY 10TH MAY 2009 (BY TREVOR JUSTIN)

On Sunday 10th May 2009 the Kaizen Central Squad continued on their journey in the second week of a trilogy of competitions, this time taking 12 competitors to compete in the Meopham Open championships in Kent.

Over the last couple of years Kaizen Central have seen so many of its fighters take part in this grass-roots competition and progress into National and International Champions. This was no different. It was pleasing to see from my point of view and was shared from the other Coaches the mix of the inexperienced and seasoned competitors all competing under one roof giving no less than 100% effort which was greatly rewarded in many aspects.

The start of the day as always was the kata events where Azizah Fadare, Aaliyah Fadare, Michaela Kemp and Malik Fadare all took part in their first open competition outside the association and did extremely well and gave a good account of themselves not looking out of place and was all very unlucky not to progress passed the first stage of the events.

Shaun Anderson who has been out injured for over a year gave himself a good stepping stone to recovery to compete in this competition and was unlucky not to medal this time but gave himself good preparation for the forth-coming British Championships in September.

Cheryl Anderson took part in the Cadets (16-17) category, every time I’ve watched Cheryl’s kata’s, she gets better and better. In her event she done extremely well by getting what I would call a modest Bronze, many of us thought she was very unfortunate not to get the Gold medal. Well done Cheryl!

For the first time in a couple years it was pleasing to the eye to see Kaizen Central put out a Kata Team (Azizah, Aaliyah and Michaela) and done themselves proud by coming 4th in this event. Well done girls keep it up you only can get better.

Next on were the kumite events.
Tommy Langley, Reuben Williams and Shaun Anderson all gave a good account for themselves and fought with a lot of spirit and was very unlucky not to get a medal this time around but you can see that these three boys are improving all the time. Well done guys.
In the Girls 4’2-4’8 category was very unfortunate that the two sisters Azizah and Aaliyah Fadare had to fight each other in the semi-finals in a close fought contest, Azizah narrowly came out on top earning Aaliyah a Bronze medal and in the final Azizah done very well and received a well deserved Silver coming up against a more experienced fighter. Well done Azizah and Aaliyah in your first competition.
Malik Fadare took part in the Boys over 5’2 event in his first competition and battled against a much heavier boy rather than the height and needed more protection from the referees’ which wasn’t given in my opinion and was unlucky to lose his fight but had done enough to warrant a well deserved bruising Bronze medal. Well done Malik welcome to the world of Kumite.

In the Boys Cadets (16-17) event Dean Gunn who hasn’t fought for a while, blew the dust off his mitts to get stuck into this competition, Dean got a bye in the first round and in his quarter-finals fought extremely well against a tough opponent and won 4-2 to take him into the semi-finals. Unfortunately Dean had to pull out of his Semi-final fight due to a re-occurring shoulder injury, but the pain was not all in vain, Dean had secured a Bronze medal. Well done Dean!

Well what can I say about the next three people that hasn’t been said before, Jake Langley, Sarria Joseph and Whitney Rose were all on blistering form, the more experienced members of our junior squad, their commitment and dedication to their training and attitude is a shining example to the up and coming members of our squad.

In Girls Over 5’2 Category Sarria breezed through the rounds to get into the semi-finals against one of her rivals, a few debateable points went against Sarria depriving her a place in the finals, earning Sarria a Bronze medal. Well done Sarria!
The Girls Cadets (16-17) Whitney only had four people in her category 3 out of the 4 are on the England squad so they had to encounter a round-robin. Whitney lost 2 of her 3 fights to some dubious decisions that went against her, that on another day the outcome would have been totally different, so Whitney had to settle for the Bronze medal, but what I will say is that the technique of the day for me was when Whitney delivered a ferocious ushiro-geri (back-kick) to her opponent so well executed I wished that could be shown again in slow motion, Jordan Thomas would have been proud of.

The Boys Over 5’2 event saw Jake looking to pick himself up after a disappointing fight in the WKU competition the week before, and he done just what the doctor ordered. Jake cruised into the finals where he met a very good fighter. Jake took an early lead going into the fight and was looking comfortable, once again a couple of dodgy points went against him and before we knew it the fighters were back on level terms, then Jake showed his classed and stepped up the pace to eventually take the Gold medal with ease to erase the memories of the previous week. Well done Jake!

RESULTS

1. GOLD – JAKE LANGLEY

1. SILVER – AZIZAH FADARE

6. BRONZE – CHERYL ANDERSON (KATA), AALIYAH FADARE, MALIK FADARE, DEAN GUNN, WHITNEY ROSE, SARRIA JOSEPH

I would like to thank the parents and supporters for your support also to Kaizen Central senior coaches Sensei’s’ John Anderson Snr, Glen Middleton and junior coach Kerry Gunn for excellent coaching and guidance. Thank you to Julie Gunn for collecting all the individual results as they came in, as well as organising the competition entries.

Roll on the final part of our trilogy of competitions on the Sunday 17th May 09 in Surrey.

Sensei Trevor Justin – Kaizen Central senior coach
3rd Dan

WKU Karate Championships - 3rd May 2009 (By Jordan Thomas)

The WKU championship has turned out to be another successful competition for Kaizen Central once again. Starting off the day with a two hour trip up to Bristol seemed to go really quickly for me as I slept the whole way there, I can't even remember getting on the motorway. As soon as we got inside the competition had started. From our squad there were only six of us who went down.

This event was the first time we could have a men’s team because it was 16+. This team was made up of me, little John and Michael Burke. This was the strongest team in the category. Not surprisingly the team had come away with a Gold Medal which all of us had to pull out some great performances to do this.

We also had a mixed team, which involved me, Kerry and little John. Again we were one of the favourite team to win again other than the WKU A team, which we had met in the final. But the team had pulled out another Gold Medal.

We had two competitors in the Kata, Michael and Keanu. Sadly Keanu didn’t come away with any medal in the kata but Michael once again took away the gold. Michael in my books is one of the best in England for his age in kata showing improvement every time he competes.

Jake Langley didn’t get a medal in this competition but he has shown great improvement winning earlier on in the year in the English championships. Keep it going Jake!

The 16 – 17 year old boys had three Kaizen Central squad members in the category, which were Keanu, Michael and I. I had to fight Keanu in the semi – final which is always awkward when fighting your team mate this time I had came out on top and got into the final. Then I found out who I had to fight in the final, another team mate. At around 5 seconds on clock Michael had hit me with a beautiful spinning kick what slap me round the face. It was nice! So I look at the clock three seconds to go knowing I cant let him get away with that. So I come of the line and gave him one back just to let him know that it’s my kick. Great fight! Kaizen had done the one two and three, first second and third.

Kerry Gunn had got to the final but then she had came up against Sarah who she had to fight in the mixed team were she narrowly lost to her 3 – 2. This time she couldn’t pull out the win and had to settle for the second. She had already had Gold in the team, which another Silver added on sums up a good day for her.

Little John had work up to the final which he had he lost 2 – 0. Through out the day little John had performed well get two Gold’s in the team and Silver in his own category.

As for me I feel like that I had performed brilliantly in this competition as I picked up 43 points and only 4 points against me winning three Gold Medals. I am working on getting to the world championships later this year and I think I am on the right track.

I have to say many thanks to Sensei John who was running mat-to-mat to coach us all.
This prove how strong our squad if we only brought 6 people to the competition and came away with 8 medals. The coaches must be doing something right.

Results
John Anderson – Individual kumite Silver Men’s Team Gold Mixed Teams Gold
Kerry Gunn – Individual kumite Silver Mixed Team Gold
Keanu Mayhew – Individual kumite Bronze
Michael Burke – Kata Gold Men’s Team Gold Individual Kumite Silver
Jordan Thomas – Individual kumite Gold Men’s Team Gold Mixed Team Gold

Well done all!