KUGB Central Regions Championships 2010

The KUGB Central Regions Championships is held annually during the competition-filled Lent Term. The competition is open to all KUGB affiliated clubs in the centre of the country and is held in Chesterfield.

Competition Report

A massive CUKC team of 20 people travelled to Chesterfield for the Central Regions Championships, which resulted in Cambridge bringing home the Central Regions Kumite Shield for the first time in history. This is a fantastic achievement and everyone who competed today should be very proud of themselves! This report is rather long due to all the medals won!!

In individual kumite, in the men's event Francisco, Paul, Richard and Petre took all four semi final spots for an all-Cambridge final! Petre, Francisco and Paul all scored ippon in the rounds, Paul with a fantastic takedown and punch to the back. They came out 1st, 2nd and =3rd respectively. In the women's event Maddy, Keisha and Jolanta fought hard to get to the semis and took 2nd and =3rd.

In the junior men's kumite, Nim pulled out a fantastic move: as his opponent threw out a fast ushiro-mawashi, Nim just avoided and landed a beautiful jodan punch, knocking the other fighter to the floor. Despite looking like ippon, Nim was unlucky not to win the match, but came out with a hard fought silver medal. In the junior women, Emma Nunn made it look easy with her textbook jodan over-the-top punches to reach the final. There she fought newcomer Sam Day, who had totally dominated her much-taller opponent in the rounds in her first ever shobu ippon competition. Emma just pipped Sam to the gold with her fast jodan punches — 1st and 2nd place to Cambridge! Ahmed, Nikon and Craig were unlucky not to progress in the men's kyu grade kumite, but Andy Routh won the bronze.

On to the kata! In the team kata, Maddy, Emma and Gosia performed a strong Nijushiho to reach the final, where they won gold in style with a strong and highly synchronised Gojushiho Sho. In the men's individual dan grade kata, Petre and Paul took gold and silver with a dynamic Unsu and a strong Kanku Sho. In the women's dan grade kata, Gosia Stanislawek won gold with a strong and spirited Gojushiho Sho, Maddy took silver and Tegwen took 4th with Jion. Special congratulations to Tegwen as it was her first ever kata in competition as a dan grade!

In the men's kyu grade kata Ahmed, Andy and Maciek performed with spirit but didn't make it through. Craig and Martin took 3rd and 4th respectively with aggressive performances of Bassai Dai and Heian Godan. In women's kyu grade kata, Tiina Pajuste repeated her Student Nats success with another gold, and relative newcomer Nanna Li took the silver, both with precise performances of Bassai Dai.

Onto the most tense and exciting part of the competition: team kumite. In the women's event, both A (Maddy, Gosia, Emma) and B (Tegwen, Tiina, Keisha) teams progressed to the final — team B beating regular winners Kaizen in the rounds. They faced each other in the final and were very evenly matched, with Emma Nunn's win just taking it for Women's A. Gold and silver for Cambridge for the first time ever! In the men's event, the Men's B team (Petre, Nim, Craig) won bronze, and Men's A (Richard, Francisco, Paul) made it through to the final.

The final was an exciting match with the outcome of the overall kumite shield riding on the result! In the first fight, Richard was just beaten out by the other team after contact warnings flying around on both sides of the equation. Up second, Francisco cleanly won his fight. Paul fought third — both fighters having points discussed and rejected time and time again which only added to the tension! The match ended in a draw. Francisco stepped up for the decider and kept it cool with two massive gyuaku tsukis to win the match and the kumite shield for Cambridge!

Overall, Cambridge took the kumite shield for the first time in history. This is a massive achievement, especially as half the kumite categories are for children so we won no points in those but still came out on top! Of special note is the total domination of the men's senior dan grade event and women's senior dan grade event, and the team events. All performances today really show the quality of our instruction, training and dedication to karate. Well done to everyone, and many thanks to all our instructors but especially Sensei Richard :)

Competitors: Men: Nim Sukumar, Francisco Martinez, Paul Smith, Richard Oriji, Petre Nicolescu, Andrew Routh, Martin Worthington, Craig Woodhead, Nikon Rasumov, Ahmed Al-Shabab, Maciek Cabaj. Women: Madeleine Wood, Emma Nunn, Gosia Stanislawek, Tiina Pajuste, Keisha Notice, Tegwen Ecclestone, Samantha Day, Nanna Li, Jolanta Pilinkaite

Overall

Kumite: 1st
Kata: 2nd