Kata tournament at Vale club (From Barry And District News)

Kata tournament at Vale club

MORE THAN 80 Vale Karate members took part in the latest of their monthly tournaments, held at the VGKO base, Barry Leisure Centre.

The Vale holds a tournament every month, alternatively in the disciplines of Kumite (fighting) and Kata (form).

November's event was a Kata Tournament with the entrants split into eight categories, three events for children of 10 years and below, a further three for children aged 11-14, a category for adults below brown belt and finally a section for brown and black belt adults.

The standard of karate at the Vale Karate Club is the best in Wales, reflected in their topping the Welsh Championships medal table this year, and that standard was evident at this small in-club tournament where winning a medal is harder than in many Open Championships!

The judges were Vale instructors Sense Bo Channon 5th Dan, technical director and current Welsh Men's Kata Champion; Gareth Reynolds, Junior Kumite squad coach and current Welsh open-weight Kumite Champion; and Gavin Keedwell, junior kumite squad assistant coach and Welsh and current British Cadet Kumite Champion.

Results

10 years and below, yellow, red and green belts: 1 Dominic Johns, 2 Daryn Sutton, 3 Giles Jennings.

10 years and below blue and purple belts: 1 Leah Copeland, 2 Richard Samrout, 3 Henryk Samrout.

10 years and below brown and black belts: 1 Nick Hooper, 2 Rhys Davies, 3 Natasha Paton.

11-14 years yellow, red and green belts: 1 Carrie Griffiths, 2 Lauren Morris, 3 Luke Bryant.

11-14 years blue and purple belts: 1 Lewis O'Hanlon, 2 Lisa Green, 3 Lewis Green.

11-14 years brown and black belts: 1 Alice Hooper, 2 Sion Rees, 3 James Dixon. Adult 4th Kyu and below: 1 Andrew Jones, 2 Martin Bardsley, 3 Jessica Morgan.

Adult Dan grades: 1 Alan Morgans, 2 Andrew Kanias, 3 Helen Young.

The Vale will be sending junior squads to two important tournaments next week, when they will be at the National Children's Shotokan Championships in Milton Keynes and

The Shotokan of England Invitational event in Portsmouth. Unfortunately both events are on the same day and so the junior A squad will be split in two.

The tournament year will culminate in Bo Channon and Gareth Reynolds, two of only three Welsh representatives, travelling to Spain for the World Championships in Madrid.