Ken-Bu-Kan top the Kumite medals at the 22ND WIKF British Nationals

Post date: Apr 06, 2013 10:40:34 PM

Fifteen members of the Ken-Bu-Kan squad returned to Leicester to compete at the 22nd WIKF British National Championships.  This year, Head Coach Sensei Andy Michaelides was heavily involved with running the Championships and was unable to coach the squad this year.  Also, Marvin Kirton was also assisting with the running of the Championships, so the squad had to rely on self- coaching and the assistance of Ken-Bu-Kan’s elite athletes Gavin Bailey, Aneesha Pancha, Jay Kirton and Jerome Brown to produce the results for the club, who were also in action all day.

Firstly, Jack Ward, Brandon Wilkins, Brian Galeano and Jay Kirton all took the mats for the Kata events.  It was a nervous couple of hours for the Kata squad as it was both Jack and Brian’s first Kata competition and Jay hadn’t competed in a Kata event, since he won the Junior Europeans in Italy in 2010.  The squad had hardly prepared for the events and so results were not expected.  Jack and Brian both performed well to reach the final but both missed out on the narrowest of points to finish 4th.  Brandon suffered the same fate, reaching the final but finished in 5th place.  Jack also competed in the category above and finished in 6th place.  Finally, Jay stop midway through his first round to get zero points, but his second round Kata was very impressive scoring the 2nd highest marks but was irrelevant for the overall results.  Had Jay completed his first round Kata, then I’m sure Jay would have won yet another Gold medal to add to his previous tally of six National Kata titles.  In the team event, Jack and Brandon performed well to get into the medal positions, but Jay again scored zero points for not completing his Kata, so the team finish in 6th position overall.  Kata over, no medals but some good performances.

On to the Kumite event, which Ken-Bu-Kan have dominated since 2004!  Once again, a relatively smaller squad against the likes of Suhari, who had nearly 3 times as many athletes this year!  First up were the teams.  Jack Ward and Logan Wilkins as a two man team took our first Bronze medal in the Peewee event, whilst Brandon Wilkins, Kyle Docherty and Jack Ward secured the second Bronze medals in the Mixed 12-13 Years.  Next were our Male cadets of Dan Farrelly, Charlie Coulson and Isaac Beck, who suffered defeat in the semi-finals to secure our third Bronze medal.   In the Male Junior team finals, Jerome Brown won his bout comfortably but Joe Kellaway was forced to retire after getting injured.  Final bout featured our inexperienced Brian Galeano who was only a green belt and hadn’t fought competitively for over 5 years.  Brian had his work cut out against a highly experienced, highly skilled and highly charged black belt.  The team settled for the Silver medal and lost their title from last year.  Finally, was the Male Senior event which they lost in 2012 to Suhari.  This year however, saw the return of the very successful trio of Gavin Bailey, Jay Kirton and Jerome Brown.  The boys didn’t disappoint as they swept aside Suhari in the final to claim back their title.

Jack Ward, Brandon Wilkins, Danielle Kirby, Aneesha Pancha and Gavin Bailey were all selected to take part in the showcase home nations event this year.  All athletes out-gunned the opponents winning their bouts and securing the win for England.  Another Gold medal for the team!

In the individuals, Logan Wilkins who was competing for his first time ever and was the youngest athlete on the day at just 5 years old!  Logan fought well to secure our first Bronze medal.  Jack Ward was next and who at just 9 years old was competing in 9 events overall which is impressive!  Jack suffered our biggest shock of the day as he was disqualified for getting his 4th Jogai warning although he was winning for the whole bout.  Jack had to settle for a Bronze medal but had lots more fights to come.  Kyle Docherty, another debutant secured Bronze in his first competition.  Jack Ward returned to the mat in the category above his own and claimed his lost Gold medal in the individuals.  A great result and good preparation for Jack’s campaign on the World Championship later on in 2013.  Brandon Wilkins was impressive in his event, winning both the light and heavy weight categories.  Brandon now remains unbeaten at these Championships.

In the male Cadets, Charlie Coulson secured a bronze the light weight event, whilst Dan Farrelly continues to impress as he claimed his second Gold of the year to win the Nationals.  In the heavy weight event, both Isaac Beck and Charlie Coulson finished 5th whilst Dan impressively reached yet another final.  Dan, who had just turned 14 years old was up against Suhari’s best athlete who was nearly 16 years of age.  Despite the age, height and experience gap, Dan performed well but settled for the Silver medal.   Michael Cox secured bronze in the junior grade category, while Brian Galeano took the Silver.   In the female division, Danielle Kirby outclassed all the female cadets and juniors athletes on the day, by winning both events.  Aneesha Pancha completed the female medals by winning back her title for the 7th time, which she surprisingly lost in 2012 and showed no mercy in doing so.

Finally, the men division with Jerome Brown first in action in the Juniors.  A very determined Jerome who had lost his title in both 2011 and 2012, powered passed all his opponents to claim back his title and the Gold medal.  Defending Champion Jay Kirton unfortunately pulled out from his category as he was unable to recover from the undeserved injury he picked up in the earlier team event against a heavy weight athlete he beat in 2012.  A possible ploy to weaken Jay this year I think.  However, step forward Gavin Bailey who firstly won the light weight division in style to face the heaviest athlete in the competition in the showcase Suzuki’s Champions Cup for £100 cash prize, which was sponsored by Ken-Bu-Kan Sport Karate.  With an amazing atmosphere and £100 at stake, Gavin was giving away nearly 40 kilos, a massive amount to deal with.  However, Gavin didn’t let the team down as he disposed of his opponent to claim the final Gold medal and of course the deserved £100

Overall, the squad came home winning 11 National Gold medals, 1 Silvers and 9 Bronzes taking top spot in the Kumite medals.  Considering, that the team were not coached this year, this was a massive achievement, so well done to everyone this year.

Congratulations to the following medallists:

CHAMPIONS:    Gavin Bailey x3, Aneesha Pancha, Jay Kirton, Jerome Brown x2, Danielle Kirby x2, Dan Farrelly, Brandon Wilkins x2 and Jack Ward.

SILVER:                 Dan Farrelly, Jerome Brown, Joe Kellaway, Brian Galeano x2,

BRONZE:              Charlie Coulson x2, Isaac Beck, Dan Farrelly, Michael Cox, Logan Wilkins x2, Brandon Wilkins, Jack Ward x3, Kyle Docherty x2

Below Sensei Andy (Centre) with Ken-Bu-Kan’s Junior Male  squad (L-R):  Dan Farrelly, Kyle Docherty,Brandon Wilkins, Jack Ward and Charlie Coulson