Can Do did it at the Nationals...
It was a great day yesterday, Sunday the 19th of November, at the Wildcats Arena in Nottingham. A small squad of 12 CDMA karateka made their way to the JKS England Open Championship, and competed against clubs from around the UK, and from other associations and styles of karate.
Stella Sensei started the day well with some excellent kata performances giving her victories over current JKS England squad members, and leading her to compete in the final against one of England's best, Lacy Stembridge. After an exceptional performance Stella was awarded the silver medal.
This seemed to give the CDMA team a boost and the medals started to come in as the Kumite categories started to take place. Kenny Lambourne had victory snatched from him with an on-the-buzzer head kick in the first round, however keeping his composure he fought his was through the repercharge to take the bronze medal in the 14-15 years Dan Grade category.
Next Tom Phillips came through a similar route and set of circumstances as did JF to take the bronze medal in their respective categories for kumite. Tom was thrilled as he has had a 4 year break from competing due to injury.
Both Ece Bessen and Sam Coxon had a fantastic days competing, fighting their way through the rounds and beating many high level competitors in order to make the finals. Both had very tough and experienced opponents, and continuing their brilliant performances they were unlucky not to win. Sam and Ece both took the silver medal to round off what was a very challenging day out.
We'd like to thank and applaud all our competitors, everyone showed true spirit and commitment to their karate, putting themselves out there, and taking on the challenge. It is not an easy thing to compete and more often than not it doesn't go the way you wanted it to. But as our team showed, together, with your teammates you can as a squad achieve great things.
We will be holding a Karate Squad tryouts and selection in January 2018. If you are interested in attending please speak to your sensei. You will have the opportunity to compete regionally, nationally and be given the chance to go for England trials if your performance warrants it. CDMA has a fantastic competitive heritage and we would love to see this continue with the next generation of competitors as Karate enters the Olympics in Tokyo 2020.