European Karate Championships for Cadets, Juniors & U21yrs - Day 3 Sunday Team Kata & U21 Kumite

Team Kata (Cadet/Junior)

The morning’s short briefing stressed that slapping of the arms observed in Gojushiho Sho the previous day is not karate and that we must all use the four criteria so that we are all doing the same job.

We started T4 with Male Team Kata and with Team England in the first round (Numan Nasim, Dahni Maisuria and Connor Hewitt) against Slovakia.  England performed Enpi kata which although being sharper and having more fighting spirit than their opponents suffered from a bit too much ‘stampiness’  for my liking (if that’s a proper word) which is used to synchronise and also to give the impression of power.  England went out 4-1. 

I then came on as judge 4 for the next round which went 5-0 – I think this was Uechi Sanseiru from Croatia but not absolutely sure.  We were then into the repechage territory, where I was picked as Judge 2 for the Bronze Final Croatia with Kanku Sho against a very good Suparimpei from Slovakia.  Both teams performed Bunkai but Croatia were disqualified for not completing the bow outside of the tatami before starting the kata.  This was a technicality but had been stressed in the Refs and coaches meeting on the Friday night – a hard lesson for the Croatians and highlighted the need for coaches to be exactly up to date with the application of the rules.

This concluded the kata for me and I then moved over to Tatami 1 for the Kumite, once again alongside Dale, but where the Female Team Kata was still ongoing. 

I therefore got the opportunity to watch up close the Female England Kata Team of Natalie Payne, Melissa Williamson and Abbie Cook.  I did not see them in the first round with Nipaipo against Italy where they went out but then they came back in the repechage against Ukraine which they won 4-1 with a very good Anan.  This took them to the Bronze Final against France.  England Did Paiku and the French did Gankaku, both with Bunkai.  The decision went to the French 4-1.  I missed the England Paiku performance and only saw the Bunkai which was very impressive.  My colleagues all confirmed that the French kata performance was better and deserving of the Bronze medal.

For the kumite we were reminded that since this was Day 3 then we had to stay at the top of our game since any tiredness can lead to an increased incidence of protests.  It was also stressed that contact still needs to be skin touch and not impact.  We were also reminded of the importance of the role of Kansa and the duration of two seconds only for holding.

T1 started with -60kg u21’s and I judged Bouts 3 & 4 which in contrast to the previous days scrappy affairs were clean fights with good clear points scored.

We then did Male -68kg where I did Score Supervisor for six bouts followed by two semi final bouts as J3 which were very tight one of which involved Garin Marvin of France – a very strong capable fighter.  Unfortunately, this fight was littered with penalties and he was eventually disqualified for Mubobi Cat2.

A special mention here to England’s third Bronze Medallist of the Tournament Kate Kawacinski.  I witnessed Kate in two of her fights including the Bronze Final and she looked a class act totally dominating her opponents -  a true credit to her coaches Willie Thomas and Paul Newby.

During a lull before the finals I opened my wallet and added two books to my collection – Taiji Kase’s Kata Superieur Shotokan Ryu at €43 and Hidetoshi Nakahashi’s Tradition Shito-Ryu Karate Do at €46.5, plus a really good white tournament Polo Shirt at €16 – Ace!

This just left the finals and then the final Referees debrief with the full Euro Commission where we were thanked for our efforts over the last three days.  The President of the Portuguese Karate Federations also made a special effort to come and thank us and leave us all with a gift of a bottle of Tawny Port which was much appreciated. 

The RC then presented awards to the long serving members of the Euro Refs Team one of which was an award for over 20 years’ service to England’s Billy Brennan.  The applause that he got from the entire Euro Ref Team was almost deafening and he himself admitted he had a tear in his eye as he collected his gold pin badge from Primoz Debenak the Euro Chief Referee.  This fantastic reception bodes well for his potential election to the Referee Commission at the Senior European Championships in Finland in May.

We then managed to at last get our act together and take the obligatory Team Photos by the tournament banner.  We even allowed team Scotland to make a guest appearance on some of the photos despite Scotland's push for dissolution of the British Isles.  Perhaps next year it may only be Team England, Wales and N.Ireland – who knows?

Steve Coupland, Peter Bibby, Paul Gunn, Me, Dale Gamble, Billy Brennan, Brian Jarvis, Nigel Blood

 

 

 Steve Coupland, Peter Bibby, Paul Gunn, Brian Jarvis, Grant Bonnar, Rab McQueen,  Billy Brennan, Dale Gamble, Nigel Blood, Me

We then braved the miserable cold wet Lisbon weather to venture into the Chiado district of Lisbon.  After drifting aimlessly around in the pouring rain for a while we struck lucky and found a superb traditional Portuguese restaurant – The Alfaia whose staff looked after eight manic Englishmen and two Scotsmen admirably.  What an evening!

 

 

The following day (Monday) a number of the guys all caught early morning planes – quite how I’m still not sure, leaving myself and Steve to take in the delights of Lisbon – Castilo de Sao Jorge and the city Centre.



With our flight back to Stansted and the best part of a two hour drive back home, so ended my sojurn to Lisbon.  Across the three days, I had judged sixteen kata bouts without being in the minority a single time including two Bronze Finals, judged fitteen Kumite bouts, Score Supervisor nine times and Kansa Assistant six times – Marvellous - some of us are easily pleased!