Championship Success for Kyoto

 Kyoto top the medals table at the 45th Shiro Asano National Spring Championships

 

 

Kyoto SKC, Bristol and the Wales and South West Squad enjoyed unprecedented success at the 45^th Shiro Asano National Spring Championships in Nottingham last Sunday 21^st April 2024.  Against extremely stiff opposition from across the UK, the Wales and South West Region finished the Championships topping the medal table with six first places (golds).  Every competitor for the Regional team came from Kyoto Club, making this success all the more impressive.

 

 Phoenix won the male kumite competition for 12-13 year olds with a performance of poise, control and exquisite timing in all his bouts drawing praise from the national team coach for his composure and clinical finishing.

 

 

 Alphie was similarly successful in the male kumite competition for 14-15 year olds, with impressive performances in all his bouts, being particularly successful with his gyaku-zuki counter-attacks and frequently dominating the tatami.  He also claimed the scalp of a GB Team member at last year’s world championships on his way to this victory.

 

 In the mixed kata for 10-12 year olds, Mati won victory with an outstanding performance of Tekki Shodan, showing precision, timing, focus and real understanding of the kata.  This was a great demonstration of how to imbue one’s kata with the budo spirit.

 

 

 Matthew brought similar precision and budo spirit to his performance in the mixed kata for 13-15 year olds, again winning gold against stiff opposition and proving that he is a force to be reckoned with, both now and for the future.

 

 

Adorna performed an excellent Kanku Sho in the final of the mixed senior kata to beat her highly experienced competitors by a whole point; a near unprecedented margin of victory at this level of competition.  If ever there was manifest justification of the decision of the national coaches to select Adorna for last year’s world championships, this was it; and hopefully a strong opening case for her selection to represent GB at the European championships in Greece in 2025.

 

  And to cap it off, Kyoto secured a clean-sweep of podium places in the adult junior kata competition with John securing bronze, Rita winning silver and Sharon getting gold; all performing their kata really well, demonstrating technique, focus and excellent budo spirit.  No other club achieved podium dominance in this competition and it is something our three karateka and all other Kyoto competitors and members should be really proud of.  This success also opens a good case for Sharon being in contention for representing GB at the 2025 European championships.

 

 This was a fantastic result for Kyoto SKC and for the Wales and South-West Region, built on truly commendable performances by all our competitors, whether they secured a podium finish of not.  Huge congratulations to all our medalists; with continued application there are a number of you who will work yourselves into contention to represent GB in due course.  To all our other karateka, whether competing on Sunday or not, the next competition is not far away and you know what you have to do.  For those with medals, be sure that there are many friends in the club coming for you and determined to demonstrate their skills and spirit at the next competition.

 None of this success would have been possible without the support and guidance of our regional coaches, Sensei Dave Griffiths and Sensei Steve Ashby.  For all Kyoto karateka we should be hugely grateful for being able to train under the instruction of Sensei Steve; rarely outside the full-time Japanese instructors is one likely to find someone with such great understanding (built on enormous amounts of research, training and thought), with such dedication and with such selfless devotion to helping each and every one of his students achieve the very best they can from their karate.  We should take the successes of our club colleagues at the weekend as an object lesson of what is achievable with the right approach and dedication and we should all redouble our efforts to become the best we can be, benefitting from the leadership and coaching of Sensei Steve.