KUGB Kyu Grades Championships 2014

The KUGB Kyu Grades Championships is held each year in Wales and is open to kyu grades from all KUGB clubs.

Photos

View photos of the competition.

Competition Report

This year’s kyu grades competition saw 4 CUKC members make the long trip to Prestatyn to take part in Sensei Richard’s event – Georgia Poole, Sebastian Mueller, Josh Newland and Amy Oliver. Arriving the day before, Josh and Sebastian had the opportunity to savour the delights of Pontins, conquer a ‘mountain’, and enjoy maybe too many pints the day before a competition!

Josh, Sebastian and Amy faced 1st and 2nd kyu's from the start in individual kata, unfortunately knocking them all out in their first rounds. Meanwhile in the children’s category, Georgia blazed through the competition to her kata finals. Not only did she win with her crowd-pleasing and technically adept Jion, she also attained the highest kata score of the day in all categories.

In ippon kumite, Josh’s nerves got the better of him and he was out in his second round after pre-empting his opponent’s attack too early. Amy made a similar mistake but managed to come out joint third in the senior ladies’ 4th- 9th kyu category, ippon kumite being previously-uncharted territory for her which she was told would be ‘just like gohon’. Sebastian impressed the judges from the start and continued to impress as he saw off every opponent he faced and went on to win the senior mens’ 4th-9th kyu category, his very first competition victory. With her trademark fearsome kiais and consistently faultless techniques, it was unsurprising to see Georgia in the finals, where she took gold by a unanimous decision.

Josh was up against another Josh in his first freestyle kumite round: a 5th kyu from Liverpool University’s club, which showed up with a strong presence in a range of age groups at the competition. Josh fought determinedly, focusing mainly on chudan gyaku-tsukis, but didn’t manage to score, and his opponent took the win with two jodan punches. Amy also faced another Amy, a 1st kyu, in her first kumite round. Amy’s shots were not reaching far enough, and she was defeated 1-0 after her opponent scored one wazari with a chudan punch. Even though they both lost, at least Josh and Amy got to enjoy hearing absolutely everyone cheering for them...

Sebastian, however, left his freestyle kumite opponents black and blue as he earned his place in a tense final against a talented 6th kyu. The fight was exciting to watch and Sebastian attempted many techniques including his favourite ‘unexpected’ ushirogeri. Although it was a contact-heavy fight, after the two minutes were up it was nil-nil. The judges called it a draw and the fight went on for another minute. That came to an end still without any scores, but the judges declined to make a decision and put yet another minute on the clock. The fight was getting visibly more frantic, both men getting tired but determined to score. Sebastian narrowly missed getting his head taken off by an uncontrolled mawashi-geri. In spite of the length of the bout and injuries sustained to his leg and jaw during the day, Sebastian refused to surrender. He eventually scored one wazari and came out with a well-deserved gold.

Despite only having two men to make up a team, Josh and Sebastian decided to enter the men’s team kumite. Lacking a team member, they were forced to forfeit one fight and would have to win both of theirs to beat the team from Kirkby. Both put up a good fight, and although Sebastian won his, it was not enough to take them through to the final. Their opponents were a strong team who went on to hold off the eventual champions in an extremely close and hard-fought final. However, for having a go at it despite being a man down, Josh and Sebastian walked away with joint bronze medals.

At the end of the award presentations, Georgia continued her gold streak, taking home yet more trophies. She won two of the perpetual trophies, for best overall performance in kumite and kata, and for best etiquette and attitude of all female competitors, so by the end of the day the silverware she had amassed probably weighed more than her! Sebastian appears to have made quite an impression on the judges, getting lots of encouraging feedback after his double-gold performance, and is now no doubt firmly on their radar.

Overall

4 CUKC members made the pilgrimage to the North Wales coast this weekend for the annual KUGB Kyu Grades championship.

They returned with a spectacular haul of 4 gold medals and 2 bronze. In addition two of the three perpetual awards were taken home by CUKC.