KUGB Central Regions Championships 2012

The KUGB Central Regions Championships is held annually during the competition-filled Lent Term. The competition is open to all KUGB affiliated clubs in the centre of the country and is held in Chesterfield.

Photos

View photos of the competition.

Competition Report

On Saturday 3rd March a squad of 16 students and non-student members of the Cambridge University Karate Club travelled to Chesterfield to compete against other clubs in the 'Central Region' of England.

The three women on the squad - Women's Captain Emma Nunn, Tiina Pajuste and Keisha Notice won the ladies team fighting, with Emma's jodan mawashigeri in the final round scoring ippon, securing a clear win and the first gold of the day. The same three ladies came 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in the ladies over 21 black belt individual kumite with Tiina just beating Keisha to the final in a fight which had to be decided by judges decision, remaining equally scored
after extra time.

This feat was mirrored by the Men's A team of Herve Vandekerchhove, Michele Mestrinaro and Paul Smith who beat the Cambridge B team in the final, and also took the top three positions in the men's over 21 black belt fighting. The B team of Men's captain Matt Houlden, Matthew Benjamin and ex- Serbian team member Ogi Tripunovic along with Jerome Singh of the C team took 1st, 2nd and both joint 3rd places in the men's 18-20 fighting.

The B team breezed through the first round with Captain Matt scoring ippon with a jodan mawashigeri. The team final was extremely close, with Captain Matt beating Michele and Ogi closely losing out to ex-England squad member Paul Smith, and Herve beating Matthew, leaving the younger B team with an extremely well earned silver medal. Finally, Incoming President Spencer Hughes, Outgoing President Nikon Rasumov and first time competitor Sebastian Mueller took 1st, 2nd, 3rd respectively in the men's kyu grade kumite, with an extremely exciting and well fought battle between the two presidents. The C team comprising Spencer, Nikon and Jerome beat a more experienced group of competitors in their first round only to lose to the Cambridge A team in the semi final, with Spencer securing a draw against Paul, making the score 2:0.

The final Cambridge team comprised of Sebastian, Petre Nicolescu and ex - England U21 squad member Mark Hardy. Winning their first round comfortably, they went on to lose in a close bout against the Cambridge B team in the semi final, with Sebastian drawing with Matthew. Therefore the Cambridge men's C and D teams took joint third place in the team fighting, with all 12 male competitors the club entered having a place on the podium.

In the Kata competition, Keisha, Tiina and Emma took 2nd, 3rd and 4th place in the ladies black belt kata, and Petre, Ogi and Matt Houlden took 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the equivalent men's event, with Petre's excellent 'Unsu' putting him clearly in the lead in what was a strong final. Spencer became grand champion by adding a gold medal for the men's kyu grade kata to his kumite success. Nikon came 4th in the same event. Matt, Ogi and Jerome won the team kata event with an exceptionally strong performance of 'Empi', winning the event by a huge points margin, meaning CUKC won all three adult team events on the day. Last but not least, the youngest member of the squad, 8 year old Georgia Poole came second in both the under 12 ippon kumite and the girls kata in style, in both events beating competitors much older than herself.

No Cambridge team lost a round, except to other Cambridge teams, as such the 6 teams entered took 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals between them. On top of this, between 16 competitors, Cambridge came back with 23 individual medals and for the third year running the 'kumite shield', awarded to the overall best club in the kumite events.

Overall

Mens's dan grade kata: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Men's kyu grade kata: 1st, 4th
Women's dan grade kata: 2nd, 3rd, 4th
Team kata: 1st
Men's 18-20 kumite: 1st, 2nd, 3rd=, 3rd=
Men's dan grade over 21 kumite: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Men's kyu grade over 21 kumite: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Women's over 21 kumite: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Men's team kumite: 1st, 2nd, 3rd=, 3rd=
Women's team kumite: 1st