Ken-Bu-Kan have 4 new English National Champions!!!

Post date: May 12, 2013 1:10:13 PM

Six members of the Ken-Bu-Kan sport Karate team squad travelled to Sheffield, along with 20 others from the WIKF England team for the Premier event in the English calendar, the EKF National Championships.  With only half a main squad participating from Ken-Bu-Kan due to injuries and holidays, this year would prove to be difficult to achieve the same level of success as in previous years.  However, this did not stop the squad who all came away with at least one medal from the Championships taking half of the associations total medals, with 3 Bronze, reaching 5 finals and winning 3 of them to come home with 4 new English Champions.

First up was Nikkisha Bailey and Danielle Kirby in the Female Cadet team.  The girls were attempting to defend their title for the 3rd time and did not disappoint as they took Gold medal for the 4th time.  Joe Kellaway was in action in the Junior male team but was unlucky not to medal, while Charlie Coulson helped take his male cadet team to Bronze through repacharge.  Finally, the Male Senior teams featuring Gavin Bailey and Jerome Brown, who had just turned 18 years of age.  Gavin was on fire winning every bout, while Jerome struggled to get into his stride after picking up an injury in his first bout.  Both battled on through the rounds but the team lost in the semi-finals, to take Bronze for the 4th time.  The English Male Senior team event is the only title which has eluded the athletes, the Association and Head Coach Andy Michaelides.  They will return next year and even stronger!!!

In the Individuals, Nikkisha Bailey followed up from her team victory to win her 4th successive English title (Awesome!!) and the club’s second Gold medal.  Danielle Kirby took Bronze in the same category and then also took Silver in the open event.  Charlie Coulson couldn’t get into his rhythm at his first Nationals as a Cadet losing in the early rounds.  Jerome Brown fought well in the senior middleweight event scoring a “scorpion kick” along the way, but couldn’t get in the medal position this time.   Gavin Bailey reached the final for the 2nd successive year, but once again narrowly lost to his great rival in the final.  Gavin performed much better in the team event and had Gavin been able to transform this into his individual final, then it would have been a very different outcome!  Finally, Joe Kellaway who surprisingly lost in the early round in his kilo event took the mat in the Open section.  Joe was a different fighter altogether this time, reaching the final with some solid wins including an impressive victory over the current heavy weight Champion in the semi-final.  In the final, it was one-way traffic as Joe made no mistake to his Gold medal and the clubs 3rd of the Championships.

Overall, the squad came home winning 3 National Gold medals, 2 Silvers and 3 Bronzes to help take the WIKF to 5th position in the overall medal table.  Considering, that the missing squad members consisted of 6 National Champions and 8 European medallists, this was a massive achievement for a half team, so well done to everyone this year.

Congratulations to the following medallists:

CHAMPIONS:  Nikkisha Bailey, Joe Kellaway, Nikkisha Bailey/Danielle Kirby (Team)

SILVER:             Gavin Bailey and Danielle Kirby

BRONZE:           Gavin Bailey/Jerome Brown (Team), Danielle Kirby and Charlie Coulson (Team)