It was stressed that ALL competitors are EQUAL and all have
the same chance of winning Gold. We were
also asked us to raise our hands if our country was competing and we had been
selected in error. WKF Rules expressly
forbid officials having the same nationality as any of the competitors in that
bout.
I was selected for Bouts 3 & 4 as Judge 2. This was Enpi v Kanku Sho which went 2-3 and a
German Gojushiho Sho v Paiku which went 0-5. Paiku is a Ryuei ryu kata originally developed
by the Nakano family in Okinawa which is starting to make an appearance in
international competitions, not quite so much back in England. It culminates in a nice Yoko Geri followed by
takedown of the opponent to the floor and three finishing techniques two
punches and a Shotei (palm heel) strike. One of my favourite kata since I first
did this with Shihan Tomiyama in 2001.
Next up as Judge 4 with Portuguese Annan v Kosokun Sho (1-4)
and Gojushiho Sho v Unsu (4-1) followed by Judge 1 with Russian Nipaipo v German
Gojushiho Dai (5-0) and Spain Annan v Belarus Chatanyara Kushanku (also 5-0). This completed my involvement in the Junior
Kata 16-17yr judging and the repechage for the event then followed with Kanku
Sho v Gojushiho Sho (5-0) followed by Unsu v Kosokun Dai (4-1). Shito ryu Kosokun Dai is not a kata that I
would normally expect a competitor to perform as their fourth kata in a
European kata tournament but having said this, it was a very capable
performance but not good enough to overcome an accomplished Unsu.
Fortunately, I was not finished with kata judging and was
selected as Judge 3 in the Repechage for the Under 21 Male Kata. The previous day saw the Under 21 Female Kata
completed and Saturday was the turn for the males in the same category. Unfortunately, I did not see our English
competitor on the Friday Aimee Sell compete but she surprisingly went out in
the first round on a 3-2 result with no comeback in the repechage - a real
shame for Aimee who is a very capable English competitor and definitely one for
the future.
The first round of
repechage pitched a Gojushiho Dai v Suparimpei followed by Anan v Gankaku (2-3)
and this completed my kata judging for Saturday.
So again another good Kata day with a further six bouts judged
and no decisions against.
For Kumite I was back to Area 1 alongside Dale again and again
I did better than expected in terms of bouts officiated.
The briefing emphasised the need to be careful again with
contact – Juniors 16/17yrs are not allowed to make any contact with punches to
the head. Also, to look for the
positives i.e. points and not penalties and again allow only two seconds for holding
then Yame.
The first event was the -61kg Male Jnr Kumite with an
English competitor involved which again would restrict my involvement – in fact
I managed two bouts plus two bouts as Kansa Assistant checking Gi’s and protective equipment. All equipment used in European & World
tournaments must be WKF homologated, be in pristine condition and be WKF date
stamped 2012-2015. If not it cannot be
used.
The second event on Tatami 1 was the -53kg Female Kumite and
in this category I did not get on the mat at all but four bouts of Kansa
Assistant and 1 bout (the pool final) as scorekeeper. Scorekeeping is a vital task at this level
since mistakes do occur and if not on the ball this can easily escalate to a
serious incident if a score is missed.
Back to the males – this time -76kg where I was involved in
two scrappy bouts with lots of holding which made it very difficult for the
panel to judge especially given the earlier briefing about looking for positives
and not penalties.
I was then fortunate to get an excellent Repechage bout for
females between Italy and France with a good level of scores ending 6-5 to the
Italian and a superb Jodan Ura Mawash for Ippon (3 points).
In the debrief, we were again reminded about the importance
of looking for Mubobi rather than the more obvious Cat1 for contact and also in
the last ten seconds to show the level for the Cat2 signal to avoid any
confusion over what it is for. In the
last ten seconds Attoshibaraku, the penalties for any time wasting eg stepping
out of the area, holding, grabbing & passivity escalate to Hansoku Chui
whereas those for eg mubobi, uncontrolled techniques do not hence the
importance of differentiating between the offences.
The finals then
followed with Peter Bibby having been selected as lead Judge 1 for one of the Kata
finals (Gankaku v Suparimpei) and Steve Coupland also selected for two Kumite
Finals – a terrific performance from both Peter & Steve.
Peter Bibby - Chief Judge Kata Final
Back to the hotel for a quick freshen up and then off to Restaurant
Republica for our evening meal and well deserved cerveja.
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