Vale Karate News
As a small number of students missed the December '17 Grading due to illness, holidays etc. Vale Karate held a 'Late Grading' on Saturday January 20th.
Five Tigers (4-6 Years) progressed to Green Stripe, four Junior Beginners gained their Yellow belts (9th Kyu) with one new 6th Kyu first class (Riley) one new 4th Kyu (Maddie) and a new 2nd Kyu (Tom)
A special word of congratulations to Ieuan, who is our newest Junior Black Belt.
Congratulations all!
Friday 15th, Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th December was witness to a hive of activity within Vale Karate, Club Night on the Friday was perhaps the busiest since 90 of our members took part in our Red Nose Day event in March. Of course many were there as it was a final chance to prepare for the Grading which took place on the weekend, but only half the class was dedicated to grading prep, as we then enjoyed a Fun Night, with Sensei Kee leading the class in a variety of moves to music, including a memorable 'Twelve Days of Christmas', with press-ups accompanying every number... "Twelve Drummers Drumming" (press-up) "Eleven Pipers Piping" (press-up) etc.. A lot of press-ups!
Saturday saw the younger and lower grades of the club grading, with 22 Tigers, the same number as in July, starting the day, which was ended with five 4th Kyu children earning their Brown Belts swelling our advanced grades ranks.
Sunday was the turn of our Brown Belts (and a small group of Kyu grade adults) and ended with the Dan Grading.
Gradings at Vale Karate are a private affair, as we believe parents watching, would be a unnecessary distraction, however we open the blinds for the final part of the grading, the Kumite as a bit of encouragement to the exhausted grades is helpful and welcome.
We had three attempting their Dan Grading, Greg was going for Junior Shodan, Grace attempted Adult Shodan and Chiara was attempting Junior 2nd Dan. The first such grading in Vale Karate!
The atmosphere was electric as the supporters cheered them on and all three negotiated the grading successfully, with some truly top quality Karate on show. A great way to end the year for Vale Karate.
Five Vale Karate athletes were proud to be part of the small but very strong Karate Wales squad which attended the IKU (International Karate Union) World Championships, held in Kilkenny, Ireland from the 19th -22nd October 2017.
All categories were tough, but the quality of our squad shone through as Ellie-Jayne Farrugia in the Children's 10-11 categories earned a silver in Kata and another silver in Kumite!
Vale Karate's double WUKF European Champion, Chiara Baker, competing in the Young Ladies 12-13 year age groups took a bronze in Kumite and a silver in Kata, both Ellie-Jayne and Chiara missed kata golds by whiskers!
Alysha Lee also went all the way to the final in the Female Cadets 14-15 Kumite and also very narrowly missed the gold medal to take Vale Karate's third silver to add to a bronze medal.
The senior events featured Vale's coaches Leah Copeland and Luke Howard.
Luke is no stranger to winning major events and is already a multiple WUKF/UWK and IKU World Champion.
He was a class above his adversaries in Kilkenny and with some great displays, was once again the IKU World Champion!
Like Chiara and Ellie-Jayne, Leah's Kata looked good enough for gold, and like her students, the flags went against her in the Kata final, by the narrowest of margins 3-2!
However she was not to be denied in the Kumite and earned her first Global title with a great win.
Congratulations must also go to the other members of the Karate Wales squad who came back with a tremendous haul of medals.
Pictures:
TOP: Those who attended Club Night congratulate our International medallists
BELOW: Leah, Luke, Alysha, Chiara & Ellie-Jayne with their medals.
Vale Karate took only a small squad the UK Open in Harlow on Sunday 24th Sept, but emerged with impressive results in both Kata and Kumite!
Brad James took the Special Needs Kata gold medal, continuing his winning streak which he carried over from the WKL.
Sarah Morgan has entered two WKLs this season, winning both the Ladies and Ladies Veteran golds in both! The UK Open was her first foray outside the WKL for some years, but she took Vale Karate's second gold of the day in the Ladies Veteran Kata. Vale's double WUKF European Champion Chiara Baker was also on form to take the 10-13 Girls Advanced Kata gold medal.
The Kumite events started with impressive displays by Elle-Mai Lee who came within a whisker of taking another gold, in the Girls 7-9 Kumite, settling in the end for a silver. Alysha Lee and Lauren Moran both reached the last four of the girls 13-14 advanced kumite, with Lauren taking the bronze medal and Alysha going all the way, taking the gold medal. Finally Josh Davies contested the 15-17 Boys Kumite and back to winning ways took Vale's fifth gold medal of the day. Fine performances from Mayzi Lee, Talia Efstathiou, Heidi Randall-Sidaway, Amelie Fisher and Greg James, but they were unable to add to the tally on this occasion. Many thanks must go to our coach Leah, who couldn't have been prouder of our great squad!
CLICK THE IMAGES FOR CAROUSEL
The Vale Karate Squad had another successful day on Sunday September 10th as Penarth was the venue for WKL III.
The Vale Squad were once again top of the medal table, with 10 Golds, 5 silvers and 11 Bronzes won, extending their lead on the overall medal table. Vale now have 27 Golds, 21 silvers and 30 bronzes, 8 golds ahead of ESKU/GKR and thirteen ahead of the WKU and Kansei who are both on 14 golds just ahead of SSKA on 13.
Well done to all who competed, whether medals were won or not. The next WKL is in Neath on the 29th October.
Gold Medals:
Bradley James,
Chiara, Ella & Ellie Jayne (Vale Cheetahs)
Angel Manayani,
Amelie Fisher,
Ellie-Jayne Farrugia,
Chiara Baker,
Danica Apologista,
Josh Davies,
Sarah Morgan (x2)
Silver Medals:
Connor Ashill,
Lucas Widdrington,
Jakob Bartush,
Elle-Mai Lee,
Chiara Baker
Bronze medals:
Mark & Ella,
Danica Apologista,
Jack Eustace,
Talia Efstathiou,
Lloyd Beer,
Ella Lyons,
Ellie-Jayne Farrugia,
Amy Curry,
Alysha Lee,
Lauren moran,
Jack, Lloyd & Elle-Mai (Vale U10s)
