Squad success at the Belgium Open!!
Post date: Nov 08, 2010 10:55:38 PM
Four of Ken-Bu-Kan's elite competition squad travelled to Leuven for the 5th Belgium Open. After a short train journey across channel and the long drive in the rainy conditions through France and Belgium, the squad finally arrived at their hotel. The next day was a late start for the squad, as the competitors were due to compete in the afternoon.
Eventually, the show began with Jerome Brown taking the mats in the cadets under 70 kilos. Jerome, who won this event in 2008, beat his first opponent from Holland 5-0, but narrowly lost his quarter final to Belgium's finest and the eventual winner, 2-1 in extra time. Jerome had enough energy left in him to battle through his two repocharge bouts to take the Bronze medal.
Next to compete was Jay Kirton in the Junior under 61kilos, who took silver medal two years earlier. Jay had a bye in round 1, but beat his 2nd round opponent from Belgium 4-3 and his semi-final against a strong opposition from Luxembourg 6-3. This set up his final bout against another Luxembourg athlete, but there was no stopping Jay this year, who won convincingly 8-2 to take the Gold medal.
Finally, Aneesha Pancha and Gavin Bailey were competing the Senior categories.
Aneesha, who had stepped up to the middle weight under 61 kilos section for the first time, narrowly lost her first round bout to a strong opponent from Holland 2-4. Aneesha pulled back the points in the lost 30 seconds, but eventually run out of time.
Gavin was also battling against an opponent from Holland in the under 68 kilos. His Dutch opponent from the start showed he was a tricky and experienced fighter. The bout was slow moving for nearly a minute, but finally kicked off with the Dutch opponent scoring twice. Gavin then picked up the pace to attack, but only pulled back the one point, losing 1-2.
Well done to everyone and thanks to Marvin, for driving the squad on this trip.