Vale Karate dominate in Wales and the Midlands (From Barry And District News)

Vale Karate dominate in Wales and the Midlands

AT their first outing since the British Inter-national Open in January, the first of this year's three WKA Opens was another massive success for Vale Karate.

At the British Open, Vale Karate ha been again Wales' most successful group, earning seventh place of the 61 Associations on the medal table, which was headed by the French and Dutch National teams,

At the first WKA Open, the first events of the day (as always) were the kata events for under 12s, with the Vale winning both the under 5th kyu and 4th kyu plus events.

In the novice to 5th kyu group, Laz Gelsei turned in a fine series of kata to take his first Open title.

Meanwhile in the same age group for higher grades, the Vale provided both finalists, with Rhys Adey coming up against Courtney Peckham. With both youngsters turning in impressive performances, the judges went with Courtney.

Vale Karate's domination of kata in Wales was again underlined here In the under 16 event for senior grades. The Vale looked likely to attain a clean sweep and that's how it turned out.

Nick Hooper signalled a return to form by beating Rhys Davies in the final, with Elliot Evans in third place.

The Ladies' event saw one of Alice Hooper's easiest wins, with no-one present close to being in her class. A good day saw the winner's cheque for 100 with her name on it.

With Vale Karate's Welsh number one Bo Channon injured and absent, coaching our small squad who went to Dudley (more of which later) The Vale nevertheless had three medal contenders in the men's event.

Mike Gelsei was a karate champion back in the late Eighties and early Nineties. After a decade away, during which time he has had a successful body-building career, he is back into karate big-time.

He looked to be right back to his best ever, beating Alan Morgans to reach the final, where he narrowly lost to an English champion. Andrew Kanias joined Alan in joint third place.

Brooklyn Peckham is, at six, one of the most prodigious talents Welsh karate has seen for years. He is equally adept at both aspects of competition karate, and although giving away up to five years was maybe too much in the kata, he delighted the crowd to easily win the under-9 kumite event.

Scott Paramore and Rhys Davies, both 13 years old, are without doubt two of Britain's best under 14 karate fighters. Together with Elliot Evans, they won the British Open under 14 team title in January.

Rhys was under 12 British champion 18 months ago and Scott is the current British and British International Open under-14 +55kg champion.

The categories at the WKA, however, couldn't have been more unsuitable: under 16, over 5' 4" Which meant both would be giving away up to two years as well as height.

Rhys, in fact, was undoubtedly the smallest as well as possibly the youngest in the group, scraping into the category by about a eighth of an inch!

Furthermore, the quality of their rivals was high, with the current under 16, over 60Kg British champion present, as well as many other top under 16 competitors.

To say that both reaching the final - which they did - was a triumph is a huge understatement as both beat top-class 15-year-old boys in their semi-finals.

Rhys in particular was on fire, as in successive matches he beat the current British International Open under 16 heavyweight champion and in the final, the current British Open under 14 heavyweight champion: Scott!

It goes without saying that the pair, joined by Elliot Evans, had little problem earlier winning the under 14 team event.

British under 12 and under 14 champion Tasha Paton has stepped up to the under 16s this year. However, it was business as usual here as she convincingly won the under 16 girls' kumite event.

Gareth Reynolds is coach to the Vale Karate Junior Kumite squad, and also one of Britain's most successful karate champions, being the current British International and Common-wealth champion at under 60Kgs.

At this tournament, Gareth was forced to concede up to 15 kg, as the men's event was split into under and over 75kg.

In the semi -final, he came up against the current England number one at under 70k, Colin Heath. Colin is also a current world champion, albeit in the unofficial World Karate Confederation.

This was an absolutely epic encounter, with Gareth again leading by example, inspiring the junior squad members with his speed and versatility. The advantage tipped one way then the other, as Gareth pulled out all the stops, to eventually earn a magnificent 17-9 win.

The final against fellow Commonwealth champion David Godfrey was a little anti-climatic, with David getting a lucky break to give him a lead.

When he's ahead, there are probably few fighters who can find a way through and Gareth had to settle for silver.

Meanwhile, three of Vale Karate's intrepid squad members instead of heading down to Port Talbot decided to travel up to Dudley in the Midlands and competed in Paul Campbell's UK Open.

Luke Davies went through three rounds in the under 12 kumite, as Perrie Wilson likewise went through a few rounds in the under 15 kata.

Eight-year-old Ellis Wilson, however, went all the way, reaching the finals of both under 10 kata and kumite.

In the kata he was beaten, however not so in the kumite as he raised Vale Karate's gold medal tally for the day to nine with another excellent win.

For more information on Vale Karate visit

www.valekarate.com

email: vale@valekarate.com or telephone: 01446 419701.