The British Karate Association Championships were held in Cheshire last week, and Fudoshin Karate took on the best in the country - Find out how we did..!

The British Karate Association (BKA) organised the open championships in fine fashion, with a large turn out of  national and international competitors in all categories including kata, kumite and team events.

Fudoshin Karate had an equally good turnout with our 15 seater minibus packed to the brim with karate gi's, gumshields and sandwiches!

Representing the ladies were Sally Flynn and Sandra Gilmour who both entered the kata and kumite events, the mens events had Paul Morris and John McLauchlan in the kumite, with John also in the kata event. Representing the girls were Ellie-Mai Nelson & Rebecca Flynn in both kata and kumite with Amber Harris in the kata and representing the boys were Scott Gilmour and Luke Morris in kata and kumite and Harvey Harris in the kata events.

Supporting members included Sean and Julia Harris and Richard Barnett.

The day started around 9.30 with the junior kata events, with everyone putting in sterling performances against the experienced competitors performing Meikyo kata. Harvey performed an excellent Tekki Shodan to take him through two rounds, while Luke performed Heian Shodan in front of three judges, a good effort for the time he's been training. Ellie performed Heian Yondan with Rebecca and Amber Bassai Dai.

The ladies kata standard was equally high with Sally performing Bassai Dai, and Sandra Heian Sandan to take a well earned silver medal in her category.

The final kata event was the team kata event with Amber, Scott and Rebecca who performed a well timed Tekki Shodan.

The afternoon was the kumite events, Ellie was up first to fight a spirited fight against her lesser opponent, but just a little too much contact and a few tears pipped a decision in favor of her opponent, a good fight by Ellie and experience in the bag for next time.

Becky put up another spirited fight and just lost by one point, with mum Sally disposing of her first opponent in easy fashion, and taking a punch on the chin in the second round with a seasoned international, but Sally made her opponent work for her win and went on to take a well beserved bronze medal. Sandra fought a no nonsense fight making her opponent very weary of her, Sandras summoned some excellent speed and power losing by only one point.

The boys kumite saw some excellent fighting, with Scott stepping up to the plate with his much taller opponent firing in some good punches and kicks and Luke holding his own in his category.

The mens kumite saw some excellent fighting skills with some fast kicks and punches, Paul obliged his opponent with said techniques, in fact all over and with increasing regularity, although with a little too much contact and despite that Paul dominated his opponent he lost out to the warnings he'd been given, but still menaged to bag a bronze medal.

The final event was John's fight, adopting a tactic of 'put the boot in' unfortunately that led to John breaking his opponents nose and was subsequently disqualified for the first time ever..!

The day was a huge success for the club members that took part and for the BKA, the refereeing was some of the best that we had seen for a long time and everyone enjoyed the day. For most of the club members, this was their first championship, and given the high standards it was in at the deep end, and to come away from that with medals is an excellent achievement, and a high benchmark to build to when we tackle the JKS championships in November. 

Throughout the day we took lots of photo's before the battery ran flat - To see all the photo's visit the Fudoshin Karate Facebook Page, and don't forget to Click LIKE!