KUGB Central Regions Championships 2011

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. On Saturday the 5th of March a group of karateka represented CUKC at the KUGB Central Regions Championships, held this year in Chesterfield.

Competition Report

The day started off with team kumite. Some wonderful punches from the
Men's Captain Liam Gabb and Michele Mestrinaro, as well as a jodan
mawashi geri ippon from Richard Oriji allowed the Men's A team to sail
through the first round. They also won their second round, losing out
very narrowly in the final to a very strong team. The Men's B team
kumite (Craig Woodhead, Nikon Rasumov, Matthew Houlden) placed joint
3rd in the competition.

The two women's kumite teams performed wonderfully, scoring
particularly accurate punches with the gyaku zukis they have been
perfecting lately. The women's A team kumite (Gosia Stanislawek,
Tegwen Ecclestone, Madeleine Wood) fought in the final against the
women's B team (Helen Picot, Maithra Raghu, Tiina Pajuste, Jolanta
Pilinkaite) and the two teams came 1st and 2nd respectively. It was a
very exciting and well matched final, where every girl from the A team
just managed to win 2-1 wazaris against her women's B equivalent.

In the men's black belt kata, Matthew Houlden performed a powerful
Empi however did not manage to place in the finals. CUKC provided 3
strong finalists for the event: Liam (Bassai dai), Petre Nicolescu
(Sochin) and Roman Sztyler (Gojushiho sho). Roman wowed the crowd in
the final with his rendition of Unsu and won 1st place. Petre came 2nd
and Liam came 3rd. CUKC made its presence known in the men's kyu grade
kata category where Craig came in 1st place with a very strong Bassai
dai, and Nikon came 3rd with a spirited Bassai dai as well.

CUKC was equally successful in the women's black belt kata category.
Three of the women who entered scored enough points to perform in the
final. Women's Captain Gosia came 1st with Gojushiho sho. A powerful
Bassai Dai placed Tiina in 3rd place and a solid Sochin performance
from Maddy landed her in 4th place.

This year, CUKC entered two team katas in the competition. The team
kata squads were the same as in Varsity this year. The men's team,
consisting of Roman, Liam and Craig, won the 1st place cup with their
powerful Jion. The women's team, represented by Maddy, Gosia and
Tiina, narrowly missed out on first place and came second with a very
well coordinated Jion again.

CUKC entered six women into the women's senior kumite category. Helen
Picot gave a courageous performance but unfortunately missed out on
winning. Tegwen, despite an injured hand, decided to fight and even
though she managed to land a strong wazari on her opponent, lost
the fight in the end. Maddy and Tiina both advanced to the semi finals
but lost to the finalists - both succeeded in winning bronze medals.
Gosia proceeded to the finals. The final round was evenly matched with
a wazari awarded to each fighter, and an extra minute was added on to
the fight, after which Gosia secured 2nd place on the judges' decision
(again, both competitors had scored a wazari each).

Maithra competed in the junior kumite category. In her first fight,
she landed a punch on her opponent, unfortunately the other girl
fought back and Maithra lost in the end.

In the men's senior individual kumite, Richard Oriji dominated his
first fight before losing on a decision to the eventual winner.
Michele Mestrinaro confidently won his fights to secure a place in the
final, where he fought valiantly to overcome some questionably low
kicks and a fierce fighting style. Sadly he fell just short of the
gold medal though, losing 2-1. Overall Cambridge senior men took =3rd
and 2nd respectively.

Due to the number of people entered into men's <21 individual kumite
each competitor had to fight 4 fights (fighting every other
competitor) in order to reach the final. New captain Matthew Houlden
fought well and managed to secure a bronze medal for Cambridge.
Outgoing captain Liam Gabb, won all 4 of his qualifying fights;
beating the other finalist with an ippon jodan zuki before having to
face him again in the final. Unfortunately Liam could not repeat his
earlier victory and a decision after extra time gave the gold to his
opponent. Cambridge left with =3rd and 2nd.

It was a very successful competition for CUKC. To top off the day's
victories, CUKC was also awarded the Kumite Shield second year in a
row. Well done to all the competitors!

Overall

Team Events
Men's A Kumite: 2nd
Men's B Kumite: 3rd
Women's A Kumite: 1st
Women's B Kumite: 2nd
Men's Team Kata: 1st
Women's Team Kata: 2nd