Successful weekend for Vale karate junior club (From Barry And District News)

Successful weekend for Vale karate junior club

WITH two major tournaments taking place in different parts of England last week, the Vale Karate Junior Squad was divided into two and emerged from both events extremely successfully.

Newly crowned British Cadet Champion Gavin Keedwell, is not a native of the Vale of Glamorgan, but travels from his home in Porth three times a week to the Vale Karate base at Barry Leisure Centre in order to train with the most successful karate club in the principality.

In fact, his own personal success is now a factor in the continuing development of the Vale, as he has been appointed Assistant Coach to the junior squad.

He won the Under 18 title at The Shotokan of England Karate Union's Invitational Championships in Portsmouth last year and returned this year to successfully retain that title.

Gavin was joined in Portsmouth by Alice and Nick Hooper.

Alice earned medals in both her categories, winning the Under 16 Young Ladies Kumite event and earning a bronze in the Under 16 mixed Kata event.

Nick has twice previously been a winner of this tournament's Under 10 years Kata event, the first time when he was only six.

Unfortunately, although he looked odds-on to win his third SEKU title, he made a mistake in the semi-final to deny himself that achievement, returning to his home in Penarth with the Bronze medal.

Meanwhile, the remainder of the Vale Junior 'A' Squad found even greater success.

The venue was Milton Keynes, where they attended the Inaugural National "Fighting Spirit" Children's Shotokan Championships.

The Vale took seven children to these Championships and, living up to the hopes and the ambitions of Chief Instructor Rob Copeland and Junior Coach Gareth Reynolds, amassed nine medals.

The highlight of the event from a Vale point of view was probably the Under 12 years Black and Brown belt Kata event. Our three entrants, Elliot Evans, Rhys Davies and Natasha Paton were among more than 60 competitors from all over the UK and came through several rounds to make the last four.

After each had impressively performed their "favourite" Kata, Elliot was declared champion with Rhys in second place.

The all-round ability of the trio was further demonstrated when both Rhys and Elliot also made the last four of the Boys Kumite event with Rhys winning another Silver and Elliot earning a Bronze.

Natasha too made the last four of the Girls Kumite winning another Bronze.

There were also Gold medals for Lisa Green and Lewis O'Hanlon, each winning their first Open titles with Lisa winning the Girls Under 14 Kumite and Lewis triumphant in the Mixed Under 14 Kata event.

Finally, Leah Copeland won a Sliver in the Girls Under 10 years Kumite category.

For further information on "Wales' most successful karate club" telephone 01446 419701, email vale@valekarate.com or visit the web site at WWW.VALEKARATE.COM