Bristol Karate Academy

Academy members took away two silver medals from the English Karate Federation’s Kyu Grade, Children & Veteran Championships on Sunday. And with so many ‘what ifs’ too, our squad of six competitors can be rightly proud of themselves!

The event, held at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, saw over 700 athletes come together in categories outside of the core WKF events, giving under 12s, over 35s and coloured belts the opportunity to shine on the national stage. And with over 1,200 entries in total, it was a huge day of competition.

Picking up our silver medals were Tim Griffiths in +35 years Male Kata and Olive Davies in Cadet Female Kumite, 3^rd -1^st kyu.

As last year’s champion, Tim went into the tournament looking to make it two golds from two and after winning his side of the draw with performances of ‘Enpi’ and ‘Gojushiho Dai’, things were looking good.

The final was a close affair with Matt Rixson of Yamaguchi Goju Kai. But it was Matt’s ‘Suparinpei’ kata that came out on top against Tim’s ‘Sochin’, with the result finishing 2-1 in Matt’s favour. A solid silver for the defending champion. Congratulations to Matt.

Coming into the championships, Olive was looking to pick up her first EKF national medal, after coming close last year. And she did just that with an excellent performance.

Olive’s first match was a strong 8-0 victory against her competitor from Yamaguchi Goju Kai, earning her a place in the semi final in a much tighter affair against IKA’s Miley Peck. Olive was first to score and it was this that helped her to victory, winning by senshu as the scores ended 3-3.

The final was a tough match against Megan Winter of Wado UK. Olive did well by changing her fighting style to suit her opponent, closing the distance to reduce the opportunity for head kick scores. But despite managing a ‘yuko’ (point) with a punch, the score finished 5-1 and a second Academy silver was secured. Well done to Megan for her win and of course to Olive for earning a well-deserved national level silver.

There were so many fantastic performances from across the team and on another day we could easily have been celebrating more medals. From a 2-1 loss in Pairs Kata for Asha and Benjamin to the eventual champions to a score in the last few seconds of the bronze medal match against Luke, the way our competitors gave their all was truly ‘Bristol Fashion’ and in the spirit of the Academy way.

We’re exceptionally proud of all of our team and look forward to seeing what the rest of the year brings for each any every one of them.

Full team: Asha Crabb, Olive Davies, Benjamin Griffiths, Tim Griffiths, Luke Mashford and Dan Salter.

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