KSI World Karate Championships 2008
Kingswood Karate Club’s World Karate Championships medal haul
Left to right Katie Simpson, Hannah Penfold, Jasmine Pomeroy, Chris Simpson
The Kimura Shukokai International World Karate Championships 2008 were held from the 17th to 19th July in Zurich Switzerland and the whole Great Britain squad did extremely well coming home with 25 medals altogether including 8 gold medals 8 silver medals and 9 bronze medals. The members from Kimura Shukokai Karate Kent, based in Kingswood near Maidstone, who participated in the world championships were Sensei (Instructor) Chris Simpson, Sensei Katie Simpson (20 from Kingswood), Jasmine Pomeroy (12 from Pluckley) and Hannah Penfold (16 from Smarden) and all competed to their best ability and showed true spirit and determination.
Eliminations day 1
An early start to catch the buses at 7:15am was seen on Thursday 17th with the competition starting at 9:00am with Jasmine Pomeroy competing in the individual Kumite (sparring) and Individual Kata (forms) 11-12 years. Jasmine showed that all her hard work over the previous months had paid off by doing some of the best kata she has ever done in the opening rounds (Nipaipo and Seienchin). These performances got her through to the Gala final on Saturday against another extremely good competitor Tiia-Liina Aavisto from Finland. Also after a long day, she got her mitts and shin guards on and competed in the Kumite event showing that she has tremendous potential for the future winning most of her rounds 6-0 and gaining another place in the Gala final on the Saturday against another girl from Finland Jenna Venalainen.
Thursday also saw Sensei Chris put in one of his best performances in Kata (Seienchin and Saipai) just being pipped to the post for a third place position however making us all proud of the hard work and effort he has put in to refine his Kata.
Sensei Katie was part of the four women team of Jenny Loftus, Emily Powell and Louise Thomas who all fought like tigers in the early rounds to gain a place in the Gala finals beating many teams that have been competing and winning for many years.
Eliminations day 2
Friday 18th came round quickly with another early start to catch the bus at 7:15 am and saw Sensei Katie kick off the day competing in the ladies Kata competition. Katie went through 7 rounds of Kata performing Paiku in the first round and Nipaipo in the later rounds and got all the way through to the semi finals only to be beaten by the winner of the competition Ema Lopes from Portugal.
The next category saw Hannah Penfold perform her two kata Paiku and Nipaipo and she showed that she had worked hard to get the strength and technique into the Kata. Hannah got through the first round however she was then beaten by the 3rd place winner who was extremely strong. She then went on to compete in the Kumite category showing she has great potential for the future.
Sensei Chris competed well in the veteran’s category (over 35s) losing to the eventual runner up in the category.
Sensei Katie’s category, ladies -65kg middle weight, was one of the last events starting a 6:00pm. She fought through to the semi finals losing to a very experienced fighter Nadine Nel from South Africa North who went on to the finals. However, this allowed Sensei Katie to fight on in the repercharge to gain 3rd place in her first time in the adult ladies category.
Finals
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Saturday 19th saw the opening ceremony with all 700+ competitors walking into the arena to start the finals off with a bow to the four 8th Dan World Chief Instructors, Shihan Eddie Daniels Great Britain, Shihan Lionel Marinus South Africa North, Shihan Chris Thompson South Africa South, and Shihan Bill Bressew USA. There was also a tribute to the late Master Kimura with a song and moving video of his karate life.
We all then found out when our categories were on so that we knew when to prepare ourselves to go on. After the two younger boys and girls team kata had been on Sensei Katie along with Jenny Loftus and Emily Powell were to perform in the ladies team Kata final in which they performed Paiku and and were just beaten in a 3-2 decision to South Africa South.
Jasmine Pomeroy then performed her Kata final where she performed the Kata Seienchin which was very strong however the referee’s decision showed that the Finnish girls Seipai had just beaten her to the gold medal. She then had a very quick change into her Kumite gi and equipment for her final in which she took her opponent by storm beating her 6-1 to become World Champion 2008 making Sensei Chris and Sensei Katie very proud.
In the second to last event, Sensei Katie and the ladies team had to fight Portugal in the team Kumite event. Jenny Loftus was the first fighter out and just lost to the lady who won the ladies lightweight category. This meant that Sensei Katie and Emily had to win. Sensei Katie came up against the Portuguese lady who had beaten her in the European final last year and who had just taken the ladies heavyweight world title. This was a very close fight with the referees hearing the punches going in as well as seeing them but Sensei Katie just lost in the end 6-4 and the team took silver.
Overall for the Kingswood club this was a resounding success of 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze medal and reflects on the hard training and dedication of all the participants and the support of their parents. Members were also supported with grants from the Kent Trust for Youth Sport..
Are you the next World Champion? The Kingswood club trains on Tuesdays evenings at the Kingswood village hall and Saturdays at The Village Hotel in Maidstone. Separate classes are run for beginners aged 5 upwards to experienced adults and further details can be found by visiting http://www.kentkarate.co.uk/ or calling Sensei Chris on 07801 639052.