press report
Magpie takes Gold as Azzy takes it easy
This month saw the United Kingdom Traditional Karate Federation hold its prestigious Senior Championships in Blackpool. The Bangor based Seki Ryu Zan karate club fielded 6 competitors, but such is the strength of the club, that Saturday night saw them returning to Wales with 2 UK champions.
The squad consisted of Dave Sanderson, Sharon Williams, Jon Cannon, Dave Lloyd, Arwel Thomas and Huw Wyn Jones. The squad suffered an early setback when “team coach” Dave Lloyd was injured in his opening individual Kumite (free-fighting) competition. Although he won the bout, the Seki cornerman, Ian Fearn, diagnosed a broken rib which, when confirmed by the attending paramedics forced Dave to retire from the rest of the competition. However, the remaining 5 Seki rose up to the challenge and put on storming performances in the ensuing phases of the championships.
Sharon Williams, competing in the individual female Kata (forms) took on the best in the UK, and just narrowly missed out on going through to the final rounds. Likewise Jon Cannon and Dave Sanderson, were only a point away from progressing to the final stages in their individual Kata competitions. When one considers the standard of the all-UK entries, this was a great achievement in itself, and Shari, Jon and Dave took pride in close matching the top competitive athletes of the UK Traditional Karate Federation.
However, the Seki squad had saved their best performances for last. Arwel (Azzy) Thomas absolutely stormed through the early phases of the individual brown-belt Kata, winning himself a place in the finals, but yet to face 2 other extremely good karateka from the big English clubs.
Meanwhile, Huw Wyn Jones, who runs Pioden (Magpie) Interactive in Bangor, found himself in the “pool of death” part of the individual Kumite draw, receiving no “byes” and having to fight through every round. Huw acquitted himself magnificently in these early stages, beating all-comers to win a place in the final event, no mean feat when one considers that this was Huw’s 1st UK championship.
Getting to the finals of these championships is reward enough, but the excellent spirit displayed by Huw and Azzy, enabled them to reap even further rewards.
Azzy turned in a truly splendid performance in the Kata final to win gold by a huge margin of 6 points over his rivals, leaving no doubt that he was clearly the best in the UK in this event. Meanwhile Huw had his work cut out in the Kumite final, matched against a young, very fast and very strong fighter from the south of England. The contest was close, but “Pioden” showed great spirit and composure to take the gold by two scores to one, in an exciting and dramatic climax to the competition.
All competitors agreed that they owed a debt of gratitude to the Seki Ryu Zan instructors, for honing their karate skills to the point where they could successfully compete with the best in the UK.
