February 7th - 3rd day of competition

Final day of competition at these Cadet & European Championships and more medals coming England’s way.

Male Junior Team Kata

Kicking off events for the day was the Kata events with the boys team of Alex, Gardner and brothers Chris & Stephen Karwacinski. The boys had the pleasure of opening the proceedings being up on the mat first and drawn red against a Serbian team. The boys team performed Jion Kata and their choice was matched by the Serbian team. The boys looked good but the Serbian team secured a narrow victory winning 3 flags to 2. The Serbian team lost out later in the competition denying the boys a chance of repechage.

Female Junior Team Kata

The girls team of Rebecca Birch, Rachel Newey and Aimee Sell, took to the mats at the other end of the hall and were up shortly after the boys. The girls team faced Belarus in their first round match. Both teams performed Bassai-Dai as their opening round Kata but it was the England team that secured victory winning 4 flags to 1.

The 2nd round saw the girls team face Serbia. England performed Annan Kata whilst their opposition team performed Empi. The girls won this round 5-0 to take them to the semi-final where they faced Spain.

The Spanish team performed Unshu with the England team performing Suparinpei. Unfortunately the Spanish team proved too strong and won the match 5-0.

The girls were placed in the repechage final though with a chance of claiming bronze should they beat their Turkish opponents. The Turkish team performed Unsu and also their Bunkai following their Kata. The England girls performed Unshu and also their Bunkai once the Kata was completed. The girls were victorious winning 4 flags to 1 and claiming a team Kata medal.

Carla Burkitt – Female U21yrs, U53kg

A good start from Carla receiving a 1st round bye but it was soon down to business in the 2nd round. Carla started well opening the scoring with a Gyakusuki punch and soon doubled her lead with another. With a third Gyakusuki score going her way things were looking good. However, her opponent fought back well and scored her her own Gyakusuki to reduce to score to 3-1. Another Gyakusuki against Carla reduced her points margin to 1. It was a tense final few seconds but Carla secured the win on the buzzer with another point to win the fight 4-2.

The 3rd round saw Carla face a fighter from Azerbaijan. Carla once again opened the scoring with a good Gyakusuki punch on 30 seconds scoring over the top. She then doubled the score with another Gyakusuki shortly after. Carla’s opponent pulled one back before Carla regained her 2 point margin. With 10 seconds left on the clock Carla was caught with a Gyakusuki and on 6 seconds left the scores were level after her opponents desperate attach scored. Not to be outdone, Carla pounced herself and regained her lead with 2 seconds left and sealed a close 4-3 win.

The 4th round pool final had Carla facing a Belarusian fighter. Carla dominated the fight and controlled the middle well but didn’t manage to break her opponents defence down. With seconds left on the clock it looked like extra time was inevitable but suddenly Carla gave away a penalty with just 3 seconds left on the clock. Carl, the come-back queen amazingly did it again, a Gyakusuki off the line with 1 second left she levelled the score to 1-1 and the fight did indeed go into extra time. There were few chances in the fight until Carla won vital point midway through with a Gyakusuki and it was enough to see her into the final.

The showcase final for Carla was against a Turkish fighter who had home support, nearly as loud as the England squad, but not quite. Well , the fight didn’t go to plan as Carla and we all hoped, the Turkish fighter scored three Gyakusuki punches which Carla was unable to respond to. She fought well but just couldn’t score. Not much to say really but you should be able watch her fight soon on the video links. Nevertheless, European silver is still a great result.

Alice Goudie – Female U21yrs, U60kg

Alice made a good start to her campaign winning her opening round fight convincingly. Alice scored three Gyakusuki punches without reply to secure a 3-0 win.

The 2nd round saw Alice face a fighter from Finland. Alice dominated the middle area once again stalking her opponent and pouncing with an over-the-top Gyakusuki punch with 39 seconds left in the match. Her opponent suddenly woke up and pushed forward but it was too little, too late for her as Alice held out to take the 1-0 win.

Alice’s 3rd round fight pitted her against a Serbian fighter and both girls fought hard. Alice took a blow to the face mid way through the first minute causing the medic to take a look at her but thankfully no damage. However the Serbian was penalised for contact giving Alice a 1-0 lead. With 45 seconds left on the clock the Serbian scored with a Gyakusuki to level the scores. There was a 50/0 Gyakusuki exchange within the last few seconds but unfortunately it went to the Serbian. Alice looked to have scored in the last seconds but despite a flag the referee didn’t give anything and the fight was over.

Alice did make the repechage semi-final and faced an Azerbaijan fighter. Alice was determined to get the chance to fight for a medal and so she made the attacks count. She took the lead within the first 10 seconds scoring a Gyakusuki punch and within 30 seconds was 2-0 scoring with a Gyakusuki punch again. Just after the minute mark she extended her lead to 3-0 with yet another Gyakusuki. A contact warning to her opponent gave Alice a 4-0 lead and she sealed victory with 6 seconds left scoring a final Gyakusuki to win 5-0.

The repechage final saw Alice have a very close fight with her opponent from Finland. Alice took the lead scoring a Gyakusuki punch and with 30 seconds gone was 2-0 up following another Gyakusuki. However on the minute mark the scores were level after her opponent had scored two of her own Gyakusuki’s. Alice the lost the lead as her opponent scored her third Gyakusuki punch in a row to lead 3-2. However, the scores were level again following a warning to her opponent who was penalised a point. The fight went into extra time and it could have gone either way as neither girls managed to finish all square at the end again. The decision went to the judges and all flagged for Alice who secured bronze on that decision. Well done.

Rio Smith – Female U21yrs, +60kg

A shaky start for Rio in her opening round fight as she found herself 4-0 down following a series of unanswered Gyakusuki punches from her opponent. Rio dug deep and pulled out a lovely Jodan Mawashigeri kick to score 3 points. Rio then set about her opponent and scored three successive Gyakusuki’s to finally win the fight 6-4 snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

Rio’s 2nd round match saw her on the wrong side of a 3-1 score line. Rio went down 1-0 within 30 seconds as her opponent scored a Gyakusuki punch. Another Gyakusuki score to her opponent and Rio found herself chasing the fight. As she pushed forward she was caught once again with a Gyakusuki with 12 seconds remaining. Her opponent was penalised within the last few seconds but this was just a consolation point for Rio as she bowed out losing 3-1.

Rio did make repechage though courtesy of her opponent making the final. Rio started well scoring a Gyakusuki within the first 10 seconds. She scored another Gyakusuki to go 2-0 up. A contact warning to her opponent saw Rio take a 3-0 lead and it was soon 4-0 after Rio scored once more. Another contact warning to her opponent saw 2 points go Rio’s way and she saw out a 6-0 win.

The repechage final saw both Rio and her Azerbaijan opponent going for bronze. Once again Rio opened the scoring with a Gyakusuki punch but the scores were levelled as a 50/50 Gyakusuki exchange went against her on the minute mark. Rio took the lead once more soon after but again the score was levelled as her opponent countered her. With 12 seconds on the clock another 50/50 Gyakusuki exchange of punches went against Rio and as time ran out her medal chances had too. Unlucky but a good effort.

Chris Harris – Male U21yrs, U68kg

The opening round for Chris was really tough and Chris was extremely unlucky to bow out early on to his Norwegian opponent. Chris found himself 3-0 early on as his opponent scored almost instantly and scored twice more with Gyakusuki punches open a lead. Chris fought back wel never giving up and pulled back a point as he sunk in a Gyakusuki punch under the Norwegian’s Mawashigeri kick. However, the Norwegian scored two more Gyakusuki to extend his lead to 5-1. chris dug deep once again and scored a Jodan Mawashigeri kick in rely to reduce the to 5-4. The scores then went 6-4 before a contact warning was penalised reducing the deficit to 1 again. Once again a 2 point gap was established as Chris’s opponent scored a Gyakusuki to lead 7-5. A contact warning against the Norwegian reduced to lead to 1 point and Chris made a great comeback as he scored a Gyakusuki punch with just 16 seconds left on the clock. The fight went in to extra time and both attacked well but the Norwegian took the lead. With 8 seconds left the lead was doubled to 2-0 but Chris had nothing left to give and unluckily went out after a dramatic contest.

Alex Sell - Male U21yrs, U78kg

Alex received a 1st round bye and faced a Russian opponent in the 2nd round. The Russian seemed to be making most of the attacks and soon had Alex on the floor scoring 3 points for the takedown, although it was more of a pull down. Alex reduced the lead by 1 point but Alex was penalised on the buzzer for grabbing as he desperately sort an equalising score but to no avail.

The Russian made the final landing in the 1st round of repechage. Alex did little work against his Serbian opponent who used his front hand well scoring multiple times to open up a substantial lead. Alex threw some Gyakusuki punches simultaneously as his opponent but all went against him and Alex went out losing 6-0.

Ryan Lambert – Male U21yrs, +78kg

Ryan faced a Ukrainian opponent in his first round fight and although making his European debut for England he looked in good form attacking well. However, the opening point went against him being caught with a Gyakusuki punch. Ryan did reply, twice, with his own Gyakusuki punches and held out for a 2-1 win.

The 2nd round saw Ryan again the flying Fin! The Finish opponent was fast and quickly scored a Jodan Mawashigeri kick to take a 3 point lead. Ryan was then penalised for stepping out of the area awarding a point to his opponent. The Finish fighter was penalised himself for pushing giving Ryan 1 point but Ryan gave away another 2 points as he adjudge to be feigning injury after being caught in the face. A final Gyakusuki punch saw Ryan’s European exploits come to an end as the Finish fighter won the fight 7-1.

So England finsihed with 1 bronze from Friday, 1 gold and 2 bronzes on Saturday and 1 silver and 2 more bronzes today, Sunday. 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 5 Bronzes.

Ø Back to top