Dan Farrelly's First Europeans

My experience at my first European Karate Championships

"I first heard news of the 2012 European championships in late November 2011. I missed selections for the England squad, and had to select at a competition the next day. A week later I found out I had made the squad.

Once selected, six months of intense training started.  This involved training on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays with my club Ken-Bu-Kan.  There were also four England squad sessions where the whole squad came together to train.   There were four levels of training sessions, low, medium, high and extreme.  Each level improving fitness and technique.

Before we knew it, training was over and we had a few rest days before we flew out.  Upon arrival we took a coach to our hotel, after settling in we ate dinner as a squad and later on we had a light stretch and training session.  The next morning we had a training session where those with borderline weights worked hard to make sure they were below the weight, as the weigh in was later that day. When we arrived in Greece I had been over a kilo over weight but after the training I managed to make the weight comfortably.

The next day was a rest day. The referees had their meetings and the coaches too, whereas I chose to spend the day relaxing.  We ate dinner as a squad and then had an early night, the competition was to begin the next day.

On Friday the competition began with the Kata and Tanto Dori. The chants and calls started but England’s was by far the strongest. Afters the medal presentations it was back to the hotel for dinner together.

On Saturday the individual Kumite started. All the fighters warmed up, and prepared for their fights. Soon it was my category.   I won the first round but didn’t perform too well. The next round came and I was ready and I won, fighting much better than the last round and getting a takedown in the last few seconds. I had made it through to finals which were to be held later on after the opening ceremony. After the ceremony the finals began, I had tough Greek fighter in the final. I got ready warming up, then I was on. After a minute of the fight I was two points down, for the last thirty seconds I pushed hard to score some points but it was too late and my opponent held his lead. I lost 2-0, earning me a silver medal in my first European Championships.  

The next day the Open Kumite was staged then the Team Kumite started. We had a five man team, Tom Huckstep, Ben Storey, Charlie Coulson, Adam Hames and myself.  I lost my first fight and we lost the round, entering the reporcharge to challenge for bronze. We won the repocharge convincingly and got bronze in the team event. Later on the medal presentations were done and then the 2012 European Championships were over. There was only one thing left to do. Most of the team and athletes from a handful of nations headed into town for the Sayonara party for a night to remember"

By Dan Farrelly

13 Years Old

European Silver and Bronze Medallist