Our tournament squad team recently participated in their first International tournament and travelled abroad on Thursday 30th March for the WUKF Malta Open Karate Championships in Cottonera, Malta.
Six of Musuko Karate Academy students had been chosen for the Great Britain squad and were representing their country under WUKO -GB.
The tournament itself took place over Friday 31st March and Saturday 1st April. In our first International tournament abroad it was both an amazing experience and a fantastic result for us as a club. We simply couldn’t be prouder of everyone – they were all superb! There were 19 countries taking part with some stiff competition from places including Italy, Russia, France, America and Romania – it was an extremely tough competition with over 550 competitors participating and entries totalling over 1100.
Day one - Friday was kata day and our students did us proud – for not only representing their country and club but for the amazing results we had. Day two – Saturday was kumite. We had three students entered and again our students did a superb job and were unfortunate to just miss out on being placed.
Everyone had a brilliant time with lots of fun and laughter, new friendships were made or current ones strengthened, each and every person supported and looked after each other and the ultimate bonus is that we came away with a fantastic medal haul!
We would like to thank those Instructors who travelled to Malta to support Musuko Karate Academy and the students taking part – Sensei Julie Dudley, Sensei Gavin Oliphant and his daughter Daisy Oliphant and Sensei Paul Webber thank you for all your help over the weekend and helping to monitor the students – particularly the younger ones.
Thank you also to the parents and family members who travelled to support and cheer on their own kids as well as everyone else’s – Keeley Swinburn, Nicola Swinburn, Janet Park, Amanda Kershaw, Martin Kershaw, Kirsty Louise Park, Karen Russell and Chris Russell. You created a brilliant atmosphere and your cheering and clapping could clearly be heard in the stands!
We also need to congratulate those students who travelled to Malta but just narrowly missed out by the slightest of margins on medal positions. Alfie Appleby, Danni Williams, Faye Russell, Oliver Russell, Amanda Kershaw and Martin Kershaw. All these students were amazing in their category’s and were extremely unlucky not to come away with a placing. We have no doubt however, that each of these students will have gained lots of experience from the tournament and will take this forward to their next competition. All those named have masses of potential and success – sadly things just didn’t fall right on the day, but we have no doubt you will all have picked yourselves up, brushed yourselves off and will continue forward successfully. Well done to you all, you all did a fantastic job and should be very proud of yourselves – as we are of you.
Listed below are the fantastic results from the Malta Open Championships along with the category and the athlete who entered. Congratulations to each one of you – an amazing achievement and hopefully one everyone who took part or was there will always remember.
Simon Crowther - Bronze - Masters Kata
Simon Crowther & Nathan Crowther – Bronze - Senior Pairs Kata
Nathan Crowther & Lauren Welsh – Bronze – Junior Pairs Kata
Nathan Crowther, Brandon Crowther & Taigen Swinburn – Bronze – Junior Team Kata
Brandon Crowther – Silver – Individual Kata 12 – 14 years
Nathan Crowther – Silver – Individual Kata 15 – 17 years
Amy Kershaw – Gold – Musical Kata
What a fantastic result for our first tournament abroad! Once again massive congratulations and well done to everyone who entered the competition and huge thanks to the instructors and to all the supporters both at the competition and those back home in the UK who routed for our squad all weekend. We are so very proud of our tournament squad team as it continues to take massive strides forward and go from strength to strength!
