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