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FOUR MEDALS AT EKF NATIONALS
By Admin
14 April 2025 11:23 pm
Bristol's JKS England squad members with their medals
Bristol's JKS England squad members with their medals

Two golds, a silver and a bronze were the results for Bristol Karate Academy members at the English Karate Federation National Championships in a record-breaking weekend!

The ‘all-style’ event saw karate athletes from across the country coming together to compete for national honours. The tournament was open to the Academy’s JKS England squad members, with seven answering the call and stepping onto the tatami. While this was a record in itself, it was on the rostrum where the more significant history was made.

Under 14, Cadet and Junior categories

On Day 1, George Tarr became the first Academy member to be crowned an EKF national individual champion, as he won the Male Junior Kata event. His route to the final was a tough one, starting off with a win against the 2025 Murayama Cup senior kata bronze medallist, Kyle Traves.

In the final, George faced off against Robert Nastasa, currently ranked 38th internationally by the World Karate Federation in Male Junior Kata. But it was George’s performance of the kata ‘Unsu’ that turned the head of the judges, with the Bristol competitor finishing the correct side of a 3-2 split decision.

There were more medals to come, as George’s sibling, Lucie made it two medals for the Tarr family. Lucie fought her way through the repechage final with a solid performance of ‘Gojushiho Dai’ to bag herself a bronze.

The third medal of the day came in the sparring discipline, as Oli Hulbert made it to the final of the Under 14s kumite (-55kg division), without dropping a point.

While Oli fought valiantly in the final, scoring multiple times, his opponent also showed why he deserved to be in the championship match. The result: a super silver for Oli.

Senior categories

Day 2 of the tournament was reserved for the senior events. Gold number 2 came in the Senior Male Team Kata event, where club mates Tim Griffiths and George Tarr combined with JKS team mate Jason Lam.

The trio had put in hours of practice to make sure their kata and bunkai (application of the movements within the kata itself) were on point – and the performance certainly reflected this. A Team Kata routine must be completed within a 5 minute timeline and with a solid kata in the bag as the clock reached halfway, Tim, George and Jason kicked, blocked, punched and threw each other to round of their performance, to the satisfaction of the crowd and even some of the onlooking officials!

It was the first time out for this particular trio. Tim and Jason made it two golds from two EKF championships, having won the event in 2024. But while new team member George picked up his first Team Kata win, it was his second gold in two days. Quite the weekend!

A weekend for the history books

Before this year’s event, the history books noted that Bristol Karate Academy competitors had taken home three medals from the showpiece EKF Championships. After the weekend, that total has more than doubled to seven, showing the incredible level of achievement from our competitors at the 2025 tournament.

A huge congratulations not only to our medallists but to all Academy members who represented JKS England so well across the weekend. We’re extremely proud of your performances and how you conducted yourselves at the most prestigious domestic event in English Karate.

A massive thank you to the JKS England coaches and to all the Bristol and JKS supporters who coached and cheered on our Academy members over the two days. Your words of advice and wall of noise were exactly what was needed.

Our team now have a quick turnaround, as the next event up is the British Championships in Edinburgh this Easter weekend. If you see them at training this week, wish them luck!

Full list of Academy competitors representing JKS England: Evert Collard, Olive Davies, Oli Hulbert, Tim Griffiths, Nephele Metsiou, George Tarr and Lucie Tarr.