Karate Kids in the Medals

On Saturday 24th November 2007 at Kingswood Village Hall the second Kimura Shukokai Karate Kent annual club championships took place. There were 35 competitors in the competition ranging from the age of five all the way up to adults.  This was the first time that the club had been able to show off its new competition mats.
The events started at 11:00am with the Kata (forms) first. The white, yellow and orange belt Kata title was taken by Maria Pereira  (11) in her first competition. Maria showed great promise for the future, as did Joshua Doran (9) in second place and Michael Reynolds (11) in third place. The green, blue and purple belt kata was won by Jack Cutler (10) with a great performance of the kata Jinn closely followed by Elise Jones (9) in second place and Ben Pomeroy (7) in third place. The Youth and adults kata was won by brown belt Mark Santer, in second place was Maggie Hutt, and third went to Jack Santer (15). The black belt kata competition was closely contested with all students having to perform their two best kata. Hannah Penfold emerged as the winner with her fine performance of the kata Paiku, Jasmine Pomeroy finished in a close second place with Joshua Deane third.
After the kata competition there was an interval, where our newly formed kata teams performed their kata for the first time. The junior team comprised of Sammy Riddell, Ferne Jones and Megan Kerr and the senior team included Hannah Penfold, Josh Deane and Jasmine Pomeroy. Special thanks go to Jane Simpson, Emma Simpson and Dean Austin for arranging the refreshments for all the hungry competitors and mums and dads.
We then moved on to the little ones kumite (sparring) where Nicholas Franklin (6) fought like a true warrior to gain his first 1st place trophy, with Michael Pereira (6) coming a close second and Kieran Manning (5) gaining third place. Then it was the junior cadet kumite, which was the biggest category, all the competitors fought hard. Thomas Manning, (8) reigned supreme coming first and winning his very first trophy. Megan Kerr (11) gained second place with her formidable roundhouse kicks and Ben Pomeroy (7) fought well and achieved third place. Then it was on to the senior cadet’s category with Jasmine Pomeroy (12) fighting with determination to get 1st place, and Jack Cutler (9) fighting at his best to get second place with William Simpson (11) in third.
The most exciting category of the day was the adults and youths kumite with all the competitors fighting well, putting on a great show for all the spectators. Hannah Penfold (15) who has recently started training with the National Squad alongside Sensei Katie, Sensei Chris and Jasmine Pomeroy, completed a double by gaining first place.  Josh Deane, who undoubtedly has a great karate future ahead of him, kept the pressure up throughout the competition to come second. Jack Santer came third and is well on his way to becoming a great fighter too.
With the kumite and kata events over we packed up and made our way to the Ridge Golf Club, Chartway Street, East Sutton, where we sat down to our formal dinner which was much needed after a long day. The trophies and medals were then presented to the successful competitors by Sensei Mark Kosmas 5th Dan and Sensei Katie Simpson 2nd Dan. Sensei Chris Simpson 2nd Dan then made a speech thanking parents and other members of the club for their support throughout the year.
The “Student of the Year” shield is presented by Sensei Chris and Sensei Katie, to the student who throughout the year has shown the greatest determination, effort and application in their karate.  This year the award was made to Ferne Jones (8) who had trained and competed with true spirit during the year.  
The disco then started and we all had great fun dancing late into the evening.

White Yellow and Orange belt Kata:
1st Maria Pereira
2nd Joshua Doran
3rd Michael Reynolds

Cadet Green Blue and Purple belt Kata:
1st Jack Cutler
2nd Elise Jones
3rd Ben Pomeroy

Youth and Adult Kata:
1st Mark Santer
2nd Maggie Hutt
3rd Jack Santer

Seniors Kumite:
1st Hannah Penfold
2nd Josh Deane
3rd Jack Santer

Kimura Cup 2007 

In September 15 students from the club took part in the Kimura Cup national competition held in Stourbridge.

The Kata (forms) was the first event with Jack Cutler, Elise Jones, Ferne Jones, Edward Shelley, George Vaughan and Ben Pomeroy all in the green to purple belt category. They all performed their kata well and were unlucky with their draws being just pipped to the post. We will be working hard on individual Kata from now until the next competition so that we have that upper hand next time. We will also pick kata teams so we can start practising early.

The 3 cadet black belts did extremely well for their first time in the black belt kata competition with good performances of the third Dan kata Ne-Pa-Pu. Sensei Chris came third in the Veterans kata competition with Kata Sienchin and Seipai and Sensei Katie also came third in the Ladies competition with kata Ne-Pa-Pu and Chatanyara no kushanku.

Then it was in to the sparring events where Ben Pomeroy started us off by storming to victory and winning his event 6-7yrs Kumite. Well Done Ben! 

James Hall in the 8-9yrs category then had a great fight making everyone proud that he got up there and gave it a go, however he lost to the boy who later won his category.

Elise and Ferne Jones both fought their best fights to date and we were very proud of both of them for trying their best with Elise gaining a bronze medal and Ferne not too far behind.

Jasmine Pomeroy fought hard in her category losing to Ashleigh Whyte the current European Champion; however then Jasmine fought hard in her next fight gaining 3rd place.

George Vaughan and Edward Shelley Fought in the 10-12 yrs category where they both had tight fights, however both were knocked out in the early rounds.

Hannah Penfold started to look like a formidable fighter when she was just beaten by Sophie Powell (3rd in Europe) in the 13-15yrs category however she then fought to win the third place position - well done Hannah!

Josh Deane fought well however his opponent had fast head kick which ended Josh’s chance to move forward through the competition.

Sensei Chris just lost out on going through to the Gala final by 1 point in the Veterans kumite but took 3rd place after a tough fight. Mark Santer fought well in the same category but was beaten by a very awkward fighter.

Sensei Katie fought hard throughout the competition getting to the Gala final where she faced her old rival Jenny Loftus losing 5-6 to take second place.  

Thank you to all parents for supporting your children in this event and special thanks to Malcolm Styles and Martyn Jones for taking the videos for us to evaluate our performances.

Roll on the National Championship in 2008

A grading also took place in October and the following students gained the following belts: 4th Kyu Purple – Padraig Cuffe; 6th Kyu Green - Christopher Humphrey, Thomas Manning, 7th Kyu Orange Michael Pereira, Maria Pereira, James Pollington, James Hall, Nick Franklin, Josh Doran; 8th Kyu Yellow – Jacob Tew, Bartosz Szpak, Hannah Wells, Anthony Reynolds, Michael Reynolds and Diana Reynolds.

The club continues to train on Tuesday evenings at the village hall between 6 – 9pm (various classes from aged 5 to adult). For further details click here or call 07801 639052

Sensei Chris and Sensei Katie