Thirteen medals – JKA England National Championships

Well we certainly didn’t go home empty handed – taking THIRTEEN medals for various individual and team categories. At the end of the competition, the Japanese Ambassador’s Cup was awarded to Ernst Theron for “Best Junior Male” by Chief Instructor, Sensei Y. Ohta.

For the first time, JKA-England hosted both the Black and Brown belts and Kyu Grade Championships on the same day. With around 600 competitors entering and over 300 spectators, the K2 sports centre was the venue for the event which had earlier in the year also hosted the Junior European Championships.

The Kata and Kumite events were first with some excellent displays in the elimination rounds by all competitors. The standards increase year on year but this was a particularly high standard on all fronts.

The senior individual and team kata and kumite finals were the last event of the day, and still with a sizable audience left, the cheers of support for Colchester were thrilling.

Results: 4 Gold, 2 Silver and 7 Bronze

Ernst Theron – GOLD – Individual Kumite and Ambassadors cup for “Best Junior male” Grace Duan – GOLD – Individual Kata and Bronze – Team Kata Amy Walsh – SILVER – Individual Kumite and Bronze – Team Kata Molly Fraser – Gold – Individual Kumite John Wheal – Gold – Individual Kumite Callum Lepley – SILVER – Individual Kumite Gareth Evans – Bronze – Individual Kumite Sophie Skinner – Bronze – Individual Kumite Kat Crosthwaite – Bronze – Individual Kata Rhys Barber – Bronze – Individual Kumite Shauna Walsh – Bronze – Team Kata Sunny Duan – 4th place – Individual Kata