KUGB Shotokan Cup 2009

The KUGB Shotokan is held annually in September and is effectively a second national championships, featuring all the best karateka in the KUGB. It's open to black and brown belts only.

Photos

View photos of the competition.

Competition Report

Yesterday a small but dedicated team of Paul Smith, Madeleine Wood, Petre Nicolescu, Nim Sukumar and Steph McTighe went up to Chesterfield to compete in the Shotokan Cup. This is a tough competition open to all black and brown belts in the KUGB.

In the kata, Madeleine and Petre both performed strong kata (Sochin) in very tough categories, but unluckily didn't make it through to the final.

In the kumite, Nim started us off strong by beating an England squad member in the Junior men's kumite (18-20). In a hard-fought match, he narrowly lost out to another strong fighter in the second round.

For the women Madeleine looked cool and comfortable in her first round fight winning two waza aris to nothing. However in the second round she came up against the eventual winner and fought well but went out. Steph went out in the first round also to another strong fighter.

Highlight of the day was Paul, who fought through two tense rounds in men's senior kumite with some fabulous jodan punches to fight for a place in the semi final. Paul fought valiantly and there were a number of clashes in which both fighters threw punches, but in the end Paul narrowly lost out.

So some great performances from everyone in a very tough field, we had a good day out and got some valuable experience. Well done to everyone who competed.