BUCS Karate Championships 2010

The BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport, the merger of BUSA and UCS) karate championships are held as part of the annual BUCS Championships, in which students from all over the country compete in over twenty different sports. The competition uses WKF rules. This year the BUCS Championships were held for the third consecutive year in Sheffield.

Competition Report

14 members of CUKC travelled to Sheffield for the BUCS tournament, a weekend long competition for all university students in Britain. The event as usual hosted some brilliant karate and some of the toughest competition the squad has seen all year, however Cambridge continued with the running theme of Varsity and the Central Region Championships with yet another haul of medals. Also for the first time, Anglia Ruskin students training with us competed under a newly formed ARU team.

In the Team Kata, Gosia Stanislawek, Emma Nunn and Madeleine Wood displayed precision, finesse and power to earn themselves a bronze medal. They performed Gojushiho Sho, Jion, and Nijushiho accompanied by some incredibly dynamic and entertaining applications of the kata (bunkai).

In Intermediate Kata, Craig Woodhead performed extremely well yet again with a strong Bassai Dai in the repechage final to take 3rd place in a very large event category.

In the Women's Senior (dan grade) kata, new captain Gosia performed Jion, Bassai Dai and Nijushiho to progress all the way to the semis where she was defeated by the eventual silver medalist. Maddy was knocked out early, but got to the repechage final with Jion, Gojushiho Sho, and Nijushiho. Gosia and Maddy then faced each other for an all-Cambridge repechage final! Gosia's Empi won the bronze medal over Maddy's Sochin, and with this senior individual placing came the honour of full blueship.

Then came Team Kumite: Gosia, Maddy, Emma and Captain Steph McTighe beat Glamorgan in the rounds, but then faced eventual winners Edinburgh and were knocked out. In the repechage, they beat Middlesex 2-1, and then fought Bath and won a decisive 2-0 victory to secure the bronze.

In the Women's Novice +63kg kumite event, Jolanta Pilinkaite for ARU confidently fought her way to the final with great spirit. Her snappy jodan and chudan punches brought home ARU's first ever BUCS karate medal with 2nd place.

In the Senior -68kg category, Keisha Notice (also for ARU) faced arguably the toughest competitor in the category and won in round one. She was unlucky not to win the category as she was then injured and unable to continue. We hope to see her back in training soon!

Point of the day came in the repechage of the Senior -61kg, where Gosia was down on points till the last few seconds but delivered a beautiful jodan-geri right on the buzzer to win her match in dramatic style! However she faced tough competition in the next round and could not secure a medal. In the Senior +68kg category, woman's captain Stephanie McTighe did not disappoint. With some strong gyaku-tsukis she fought through tough competition to the final, taking Cambridge's only silver senior medal of the tournament achieving a full blue, a brilliant finish to her Captaincy.

Well done to everyone who competed, there were some great individual performances that did not result in medals in what is a very tough competition with a large pool of entrants. Thanks are due to everyone for making it a great weekend.