South Staffs Karate Kwon Grand Slam Report

On Sunday 23rd March, three members of South Staffs Karate based in Wombourne, competed at the Kwon Grand Slam in Solihull.

Competitors at SSK have been working very hard over the past few months, changing the way we perform Kata and the way we fight, under WUKF rules which are still fairly new to us. We are very pleased and proud to say that it is starting to pay off! At the recent Kwon Grand Slam event, three SSK members represented the ESKU squad and came away with a total of 4 GOLDS, 1 SILVER and 1 BRONZE!

The Kata events as usual started the day, with young Louis Powell still only 9 years old and a 4th Kyu, taking to the matts first. Louis’ style and power impressed the judges along with the England Kata coach in attendance to gain him first place! Robert Oakley was next up and an excellent first Kata put him in pole position, but his nearest rival came back strong, leaving Rob to finish an eventual second. Rhiannon Shipley completed the morning by taking gold in her Kata event to make it three very impressive performances by the ever improving trio.

Kumite was next on the agenda, a previously weaker aspect to the squad’s arsenal, but with hard training in the Dojo recently, better fights and results are already starting to be seen. Louis faught well and his confidence grew as the rounds went on to a very impressive final fight ending with yet another Gold! Rob then followed strongly to finish with a bronze adding to his earlier silver medal. Finally Rhiannon made it another double gold for SSK comfortably defeating her opponent in the final to take the win!