The competition is held at the GL1 arena
in Gloucester and attracted in excess of 300 competitors with events for very
young beginners up to the usual WKF categories attracting English
internationals such as Emma Lucraft, Curtis Harvey & Amelia Harvey.
The Chief Ref was Ivor Thomas a very
experienced Euro Kumite Judge A and he assigned me to manage Tatami 3 along
with Dona Marshall BKF Kumite & EKF Kata A Judge, Tracey Archer EKF Kumite
Ref A, Kata Judge A and Barry Mathews a WKU Association Official.
Kata was uneventful and of a good
standard. However, there is in my
opinion way too much heavy breathing from some competitors along with slapping
Hikite (withdrawing hand/fist) and stomping of the foot to create the
perception of power. This is common, also seen
internationally and does not fool experienced judges. However, it can bring results in this kind of tournament between competitors of similar ability where one competitor appears stronger due to the aforementioned tactics (as it did here in some instances). This is regrettable
Kumite was a little more eventful, with a near
brush with my first ever Shikaku as a Judge, Ref or TM. Shikaku is the most serious penalty that can
be given and is invoked when a contestant’s actions’ brings the art of karate
into disrepute.
This incident occurred remarkably in one
of the childrens’ events where boys were fighting girls. Now I’m not a fan of this whatsoever – a
recipe for disaster as far as I am concerned with the combination of macho
pride, adrenaline, pressurising parents, medal-seeking coaches and a shortage
of officials (two corner judges). In
this particular case one quite stocky lad from a very capable club came up
against a mere slip of a girl. However,
the girl concerned was very proficient, no push-over and she took a narrow lead
in the bout. The stocky lad, pride under
assault came at her to get back the point deficit and ended up getting caught
again. This just annoyed him even more
and he went steaming in, caught the girl once and then hit her full in the face
with a very strong mawash that knocked her to the ground. Whilst the young girl was receiving medical
treatment, I called the Judges in and asked them if they thought the lad went
in maliciously with the mawash. All
agreed that the lad had a look of anger about him as he stuck the last kick in
that knocked her to the ground. We were
therefore in agreement that the lad acted maliciously and that the punishment
for this is Shikaku – Disqualification from the kumite part of the tournament –
individuals & team.
One of the six criteria for a score is
that the technique is delivered with a ‘Sporting Attitude’ of non-malicious
intent. In other words, not in anger or not
designed to hurt or injure the opponent. This appeared to be not the case in this incident.
Given the age of the competitors, I
decided to check with Tournament Chief Referee Ivor, who not having witnessed
the incident and as a voice of true reason suggested Hansoku rather than
Shikaku. This was duly administered and
I subsequently mentioned to the coach that his fighter (young as he was) was
only a whisker away from Shikaku possibly in his first ever tournament and that
he was only saved by the Chief Ref. I
guess I’ll just have to remain a ‘Shikaku Virgin’ for a while longer!
After this, things hotted up with the hotly
contested Senior bouts, both kata & kumite.
Emma Lucraft stormed thought the Female Senior kata to take the title. I
saw her Paiku and thought it was very good.
The Senior male kumite followed and had
some very capable fighters, with some really terrific bouts. Curtis Harvey was on fire – he has really
matured as a fighter and manages to turn fights around even when all seems
lost. He went on to win the -75kg
category.
The final event was the Senior Team Kumite
with a Boy – Girl – Boy format in operation which I think is a great initiative
by Brian.
However there was a contentious bout in the Semi Final on Tony
Dent’s area involving Curtis & Amelia's team. Tony is also a Euro Kumite
Judge A with a lot of experience and I know he was well miffed since a fighter
deliberately stepped out of the area in the last ten seconds to stop from being
scored upon. The rules state that this
is Hansoku Chui but competitors are now starting to use this tactic quite deliberately, since they know
this is the worst that can happen to them in order to preserve a slender lead –
it just stops the bout and uses up valuable time. I also saw it happen at the Euro
Juniors/Cadets in Lisbon recently. The
HC penalty is totally ineffective in this situation. Removal of a point from the competitor, like
in Boxing though would be a much better penalty and would force the individual
bout to Hantei, if only a single point lead.
Curtis & Amelia's CEWKA team took the title after beating
WKU in the final, not an easy task in any tournament.
So ended a most enjoyable day at a superbly organised
tournament. Well Done Brian, Dona and
Murayama Karate Shitokai England.
