At the weekend at the Legend Open Karate Championships which were held at the Bracknell Leisure Centre, the local Seishinkai Shotokan Karate International squad had another excellent day in the first major tournament of the year. This result was by far one of the best in the association’s 36 year old history in the local area and these clubs took an amazing five gold medals and these were in the major categories in one of the biggest tournaments in the UK karate calendar. There were clubs from all over England, Wales and Scotland competing for the spoils on a day which started at 10am and didn’t finish until 9.30pm in the evening.
The major highlights of the day were Adam Cockfield (30) winning the men’s black-belt kata (forms) division, repeating his success of last year and Gabriel Van Rel (38) taking the silver medal in the men’s black-belt free-fighting event. These events had over sixty competitors in both of these categories, therefore making them the largest categories of the day. Rachael Houlton (26) won the ladies black-belt free-fighting event in great style beating the favourite from Scotland in an exciting final. She also took third place in the ladies black-belt kata division and for her excellent performances on the day won the Female Competitor of the Day award, which was a beautiful bronze samurai figure. Last year this trophy was won by Adam Cockfield in the men’s category so this was a great feat to take both of these prestigious trophies in the last two years. Cristy Nash (15), Tom Colbourne (13) and Conor Wardley (16) also won their categories in real style.
Local medal haul:
Individual Gold medals:
Adam Cockfield, Rachael Houlton, Cristy Nash, Tom Colbourne & Conor Wardley
Individual Silver medals:
Gabriel Van Rel, Olivia Christodoulou, Leah Groom, Oliver Nash & Matthew Gilling.
Individual Bronze medals:
Lauren Brooks, Matthew Gilling, Dylan Freeman, Madison Harding-White, Rachael Houlton, Cameron West, Sam Richards & Conor Wardley.
Team Silver medals:
Under 16’s Team Kata (Thomas Carson, Olivia Christodoulou & Cristy Nash)
Ladies Team Kata (Vicky Adams, Leah Groom & Rachael Houlton)
Team Bronze medals:
Ladies Free-fighting team (Rachael Houlton, Vicky Adams & Leah Groom)
Men’s Team Kata (Adam Cockfield, Daniel White & Anthony Holt)
SSKI is now sponsored by The Buckinghamshire Building Society who kitted the squad out in their new tracksuits. So another great result in the first major championships of 2013. The local instructor and indeed Chief Instructor for SSKI worldwide, Malcolm Phipps 8th Dan was extremely pleased with his powerful squad and looks forward to a busy year ahead with the European Championships in Germany in June.
Any adult or child interested in joining this local outfit, which is considered as one of the most powerful groups in Europe, and which has local clubs in, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Bovingdon, Kings Langley, Watford, St Albans and Slip End, please just ring the Association Headquarters on HH 266048 and ask for further details or log-on to the Association website: www.sski.org
Last edited by Malcolm Phipps 8th Dan on March 10, 2013
