2010
Next free five week
beginners course starts
Wednesday 24th February
6.30 till 7.30 book a place
now
5th - 7th February
European Cadet & Junior Karate
Championships
A medal at the European Championships
at last!
Steve and Claire Crawford and myself
left for Manchester airport at around 8.30 in the morning to meet up
with the rest of the parents, Tom Del-Rio and Anthony Kiernan as
well as Sensei Amir. The plane was flying to Istanbul and then onto
Ismir (Simple) The first flight was delayed by an hour
and by the time we had got a visa "£10, what is that all about?"
and managed to fight through passport control we were two hours late
for our connecting flight. We arrived at the gate after being
told that the flight would wait, guess what, no plane!
We were then bundled off to another
gate, onto a bus and finally a plane, hopefully it was the correct
one as we didn't ask where the plane was flying to.
Fortunately we did land at Ismir, well we did but our luggage
didn't, another hour and a half waiting in line to fill our forms
for lost luggage, great!! By this time the next flight
had arrived in from Istanbul so we waited for the luggage from that
flight and luckily our bags limped off the carousel. We
finally arrived at our hotel at 12.30am, so if any Turkish
airline operators would like to contact me, I will accept their
apology.
We were all up the next day bright and
early, buzzing about the days competition ahead. The
tournament was held at the Halkalipinar Sports Stadium in the
centre of Ismir, quite a new stadium with fantastic facilities, but
to be truthful probably a little too big for this event and I feel
the size probably affected the atmosphere.
There was 42 countries taking part
which was quite noticeable in the opening ceremony, all the
countries did not take full teams, once again the lack of finances
are not unique to our country.
Jake Kiernan and Harley Del-Rio were
the first to compete, Jake on the near side and Harley on the far
side, having to run the length of the stadium to watch each fight
alternatively. Both lads breezed through the first rounds and
then the second very confidently and I started to believe this was
going to be our day at last, then the third round came along,
Jake went through again but I couldn't believe it when Harley
crashed out after fighting so well in the previous rounds. Then to
put a real downer on the proceedings, Jake got beat in the semi,
a rollercoaster of emotions. Luckily Jake composed himself and
beat the Turkish fighter in the third place fight off, a
moment I will not forget for a long long time, particularly the
smile on Anthony's face, must have been such a proud moment for
both.
A little later on that day, one
more of our Sale Dojo trio came up to fight our little pocket rocket
Lauren Crawford, she didn't get off to the best start being hit with
a head kick more or less straight away and to be honest out of the
fight before she got going or so I thought. At around 3o
seconds to go, she managed to turn the fight around in the most
thrilling comeback I have ever witnessed, just pure determination
but unfortunately the euphoria did not last too long as she was beat
in the next round.
I think overall a fantastic first day
and I am very proud of my three students as I felt either of them
could of took a medal on that day and left me with more anticipation
for the following day with Josh Gagon.
Once again, up bright and early for
the second day of competition, Josh seemed very fresh and confident.
I know he has put the work in over the last 12 months and has done
everything that has been asked of him, losing over 10kg as we felt
last year he was a little heavy, unfortunately it just didn't happen
for Josh, he drew the current European Champion in the first round,
and even Josh would admit that he didn't perform. We all
have a bad day at the office from time to time, so chin up Josh.
If you're thinking of going to Turkey,
I recommend that you do not go in February unless you take your
swimming trunks and thermal underwear. I was hoping that I
would feel a little sun on my face, I even packed two pairs of
shorts, but with temperature of minus 2 and torrential rain I will
not be choosing an out of season break to Turkey.
(Kumite report
extracts taken from English Karate Federation web site.)
Jacob
Kiernan – Male Cadet U52kg
Jacob’s first fight was
against Spain and both fighters started cautiously testing
each other without scoring. The Spaniard eventually broke
the deadlock scoring a Gyakusuki punch taking a 1-0 lead.
The Spaniard then received a warning and Jacob scored off
the line at the restart to level the scores. Jacob soon
scored with another Gyakusuki punch and finished off the
fight scoring in the final seconds to secure a 3-1 win.
The 2nd round saw Jacob
come out flying and took the lead within 8 seconds scoring
with a Gyakusuki punch. Jacob doubled his lead scoring
another Gyakusuki but the dropped a point following a
contact warning. With a 2-1 lead Jacob didn’t sit back, he
went out to extend his lead which he did twice more scoring
two Gyakusuki’s to win the fight 4-1.
Round three proved a lot
closer as Jacob couldn’t break down his Luxemburg opponents
defence as the fight finished 0-0 and went into 1 minute of
extra time. With 30 seconds left on the clock, Jacob finally
found a way through and scored a Gyakusuki punch. A contact
warning for his opponent in the last few seconds saw Jacob
receive an extra point to seal a 2-0 victory.
The 4th round was the pool
final so no pressure! A 50/50 punch with his French opponent
saw the point go to France. Another 50/50 and France were
2-0 up. Jacob tried to get the points back but was caught
twice more with Gyakusuki punches and lost out 4-0.
Although missing the final,
Jacob was now in the repechage final fighting for bronze
against a Turkish opponent. A good start from Jacob go 1-0
up early on and instantly doubled his lead firing off
another Gyakusuki punch off the line to go 2-0 up. However,
Jacob walked into a Gyakusuki to drop a point but once again
maintained a 2 point cushion scoring another Gyakusuki. The
second minute of the fight saw Jacob drop another point as
he was penalised for ducking an attack reducing the lead to
1 point. Jacob didn’t let himself down as he sealed his
bronze medal winning fight with a final Gyakusuki score to
win 4-2 and England’s first medal of these championships.
Harley Del-Rio
– Male Cadet U63kg
Harley’s opening round
fight saw him doing most of the work, pressing his
opponent within the first minute but could find a
way through his opponents defence. After a minute
Harley began to back off to draw his opponent out
but neither fighter broke the deadlock. Extra time
saw stalemate as the fight finished 0-0. The judges
were called into vote for the winner and all flags
went Harley’s way.
Harley’s 2nd round
match saw another tight encounter but with 50
seconds left on the clock he finally broke the
deadlock scoring with a Gyakusuki punch to go 1-0
up. With 25 seconds left he doubled the lead and
secured the win in the final 10 seconds scoring
another Gyakusuki to finish a 3-0 victor.
Round three for
Harley and although he had a good sharp opening a
50/50 punch decision went to his opponent. Another
50/50 went against him a second time leaving him 2
points down. Whilst trying to reduce the deficit
Harley forced his opponent to step off the mat
within the last 10 seconds giving Harley a much
needed penalty point but it was too late for him to
score again as he bowed out 2-1. Unfortunately his
opponent lost in the next round leaving Harley out
of repechage scuppering his chances of a bronze
medal.
Lauren
Crawford – Female Cadet U47kg
Lauren’s opening round
fight was.. wow. Fighting a taller Croatian opponent
who used her legs well, Lauren went 3 points down
early on being caught by a Jodan Mawashigeri kick
despite being the most aggressive fighter out of the
two. Lauren didn’t let up and had soon reduced to
deficit to 1 point following Gyakusuki punches.
Lauren was caught once again with a Jodan
Mawashigeri kick but started to fire in her own and
scored with them twice to secure an amazing win 8-7.
Lauren’s 2nd round
fight saw her really start sharp and both fighters
had to be warned for contact within the first 30
seconds. Lauren’s Bosnian opponent managed to open
the scoring following a Gyakusuki punch. A warning
for Lauren and another Gyakusuki saw Lauren 3-0
down. Lauren pulled one back and gained another
point following a contact warning to her opponent
but time ran out with the scores 3-2 against her.
Joshua
Gagon – Male Junior +76kg
Josh had a
tough fight in his opening round encounter
with his French counterpart who looked sharp
and quickly scored a Gyakusuki punch against
Josh taking a 1-0 lead. Another Gyakusuki
punch saw the French fighter go 2-0 up. Josh
reduced the deficit by scoring with his own
Gyakusuki punch but with 30 seconds left on
the clock the French fighter restored his 2
point lead following a Gyakusuki punch and
saw out the reaming time left defending his
lead.
The French
fighter went on to make the final leaving
Josh in the repechage 1st round. Josh’s
opponent favourite technique was the sweep
as he slam-dunked Josh at least 5 times
without scoring. Josh couldn’t find a way to
score either and the fight went into extra
time. Inevitably Josh’s opponent finally
manage to score from a takedown to take a
3-0 lead. As Josh chased the points he was
caught with a Jodan Mawashigeri kick losing
another 3-0 which ended his medal hopes.

31st January
Kyu Grading
Little bit disappointing with the turnout for the
first grading of the year, I think the harsh weather at the beginning of the
month has put us back about a couple of weeks. Slowly but surly we seem to be
getting everyone back to full strength. Congratulations to all who achieved
their new grades on Sunday, especially Autumn Holmes with a first class pass.
24th January
Wasquehal Karate Open Lille France
(Report by
Vincent O'Hora)
12th
January
Happy New Year
First of all I
would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a very happy and
injury free New Year.

Looking forward to 2010 and I'm extremely positive
because we can build on what was achieved last year, if we have half the success
of 2009 I will be very happy. Last year was probably the highest point at
Sale Dojo to date with very high junior grade standards, numerous Shodan and
Nidan passes and to top it all the most successful competition squad in the
United Kingdom.
Being a person who fronts Sale Dojo I seem to get
most of the praise following our successes, I have a great team behind me and I
am sure they wouldn't let our standards drop in the next twelve months. I
would like to thank them for their hard work and support for last year and I
think it is extremely important that you guys continue to make me look good.
Sorry Dojo Closed!
Once again I feel it will be a difficult year
financially so we will endeavor to keep the cost of training and competition
fees down as much as possible and I am sure we will be
able
to arrange more fund raising events to ease the burden.
I would also like to wish our students who have
been selected to represent their country at the forthcoming European
Championships in Turkey in February, the best of luck to all, I'm sure you'll do
us proud.
I tried to play down our chances of a medal in my
head after the disappointment of previous years but unfortunately the closer the
championships are and the improvement I have seen over the last few weeks I
think this is the year. (I hope so or I will be sulking for the next
twelve months!)
England's Jake, Harley, Josh and Lauren
I know it is going to be nearly impossible to
surpass last years success but I'm sure we'll all be pulling in the right
direction and we'll give it a darn good try.