To say we had a busy weekend on 22, 23 & 24 July would be an understatement!
We had a very successful Grading on the previous Friday 15th and Saturday 16th, with our three 1st Kyu’s, going for Black Belt earlier on the evening of the Presentation on Friday 22nd.
The video of the presentation can be viewed here.
Well done to all who were successful, but of course, a special mention to our newest Black Belts; Jack, Jakob & Samual. The standard of their Dan Grading was right up there with the best children we’ve had in our illustrious history.
The 3rd WKL competition of the season (not surprisingly called WKL3) took place in Neath on Sunday July 24th.
Vale Karate dominated the Welsh Karate League for seven consecutive seasons, 2013-2019 almost always with the biggest squad and overflowing with talent.
As in all sports, times change and those at the top are targets for the rest, and we suffered a relative decline, having to settle for second place over the last two seasons, albeit to the might AKA, who have more members than all Karate Wales combined!
The decline reached rock bottom at The Welsh Open in June this year as we saw a Vale Squad of just four enter!
Our smallest squad at a Welsh Championships or Welsh Karate League event in memory!
We nevertheless saw four individuals take four golds, as our decline had been in quantity not quality!
Now the good news…
With this background in mind, I was therefore delighted to see a return to the good old days with almost forty individuals with almost seventy category entries!
We had some well established experienced and very successful competitors in our squad but also a surge of relative newcomers, with a huge amount of potential in our ranks!
In the past we’ve been renowned as being successful in both Kata and Kumite and it’s fair to say, and I put my hand up, that Kumite has taken a back seat over the last couple of years as our emphasis has drifted towards Kata.
With the reintroduction of Kumite in all Children’s classes (except Tigers) I expect this to change over the coming months as our children, especially our newcomers to competition begin to feel more comfortable with Kumite, but for the time being we have only a few Kumite champions in our ranks, though it was great to see two Vale Kumite teams entered.
The youngest category on offer at the WKL is the U-6 Kata and there were only two entries, both being from Vale Karate!
Both did themselves and us all proud with Isla taking Gold, with Alice the silver medalist.
There is also an U-6 Jukuren mixed event on offer, so hopefully we’ll have entries in this event before the season ends.
There were five entries in the U-8 Girls Kata, two of them from Vale Karate with Grace earning silver and Sally taking bronze.
Both Sally and Grace also entered and took medals in the U8 Girls Jukuren, Sally a Silver, Grace a Bronze.
Of the fourteen in the U-8 Boys Kata, eight were from Vale Karate!!
A number were competing for the first time, and although the referees on this area seemed to favour Wado-Ryu Kata’s over Shotokan, (it happens, albeit rarely) we nevertheless emerged with a silver and bronze from Jacob and Ellis.
Obviously all couldn’t be successful but it was great to see such a strong entry from our new youngsters!
As well as Jacob & Ellis, well done to William, Theo, Thomas, Joe, Sonny and Osian.
Keep at it boys!
Of our eight boys in the Kata only Ellis entered the Kumite (little warrior) hopefully more will have a go this season.
We had two medalists in the U10 Boys Kata, with Ethan taking the gold and Lucas the bronze.
In the U10 Girls Kata, Kiri continued her consistency with her third Kata bronze of the season!
Chloe & Hermione also entered, and no doubt their time will come!
We earned medals in both the U10 Boys and Girls Jukuren, Lucas taking a silver, and Hermione on her debut, an amazing Silver! Kiri took her second Bronze of the day.
As Hermione had demonstrated earlier, a medal on your debut is not impossible, and Ollie only a Green Belt for 48 Hours, also shook up the Jukuren, with a brilliant display, only beaten by a much more experienced adversary in the semi final to take Jukuren Bronze.
In the U12 Girls Jukuren, Martha was champion, with Mayzi, Sophia & Kara also medalists.
In the U12 advanced Kata and Kumite events, we dominated!
Jakob won his third successive Kata Gold of the season, and after two bronzes in WKL1 & WKL2 also took his first Kumite Gold of the season!
Mayzi took her second Kata Gold of the season and took a Kumite Bronze.
Jakob & Mayzi Joined by Dylan (who took a U12 Novice Kumite Bronze medal) later took a Team Kumite Bronze.
Jakob took his third Gold and fourth medal of the day when in the JSJ team with Jack & Samual, Vale were Team Kata champions.
Jack & Samual contested the U14 Kata title, with Jack taking the gold, Samuel the Silver.
They had identical overall scores, but Jack had a higher score in the final. It couldn’t have been closer!
Brian-Alan made his Kata and Kumite debut, he couldn’t progress in the Kumite, but took a Kata Bronze medal.
Both Jack & Samual then also entered, and took medals in, the 8-15 yrs Shotokan Kata, this time Jack taking a Silver and Samual a Bronze.
The Gold going to our own Talia!
Talia was a double Gold medalist as she also took the U16 Girls Kata title!
There was more to come for Jack and Samual in the U14 Team Kumite, where, with Elle-Mai they took team Silver.
Elle-Mai had earlier taken Individual Kumite Bronze.
Ella and her Dad Mark had a very successful day, after taking the Parent & Child Kata Gold, Mark took the Mens Veteran Kata Gold!
Ella and Amie were in the Ladies Kata, with Ella taking Silver and Amie Bronze.
Kimi & Leia, our last competitors of the day, brought the curtain down on a great day for Vale Karate both winning Bronze medals, in the U16 & U18 Ladies Kumite events respectively.
Our tally of 12 Golds, 9 silvers and 19 bronzes doesn’t tell the whole story.
We were top of the medal table, but the real story for me, is so many of our students getting involved! A big Squad again!
Many thanks to Cathy who as always ran the competition brilliantly.
Thanks to Louise and Sally-Ann on the door.
Thanks to our officials; Kee, Kiki and Jenny and to our Coaches; Leah, Luke, Helen, Mark, Ella & Kimi.
When the dust has settled and everyone has gone home, at every competition, the mats, barriers, tables, tablecloths, chairs, monitors, laptops, sound system and a plethora of other stuff has to be packed away and transported!
Thanks to Luke, Leah, Kee, Kimi and Leia who’s help was very much appreciated!!
I’ll be pushing for similar or bigger squads in the WKL4 on Sept 11, WKL5 on Oct 23 and the finale WKL6 on Nov 20 when the most successful competitors are awarded their Champions of Champions trophies.
To view the results of this competition, this season, or previous seasons, click here