JKA W/F European Championships

2nd April 2011

With military precision, set up and operations were in full swing on Friday night, preparing the K2 Sports Centre in Crawley for the 2011 European Championships.  Teams of volunteers and staff where carefully preparing the areas for the following days event.  But it was worth it with one of the best European Championships we’ve known in recent times hosted by JKA-England.

Like clockwork, two red London Routemaster buses arrived to shuttle competitors and teams from the Arora Hotel to the K2 sports centre well ahead of schedule on Saturday morning.  As teams posed for photos outside the buses, competitors were warming up for their big event of the year.  

Just shortly after 9 am, Sensei Bura (8th Dan) opened the day with a booming “rei” which echoed the hall and the tournament began shortly after paying tribute to the Japanese Tsunami victims by everyone in the hall respectfully observing silence for a minute.

It was straight into the eliminations.  Kata first, with individual eliminations through to semi final rounds followed by the team kata events.  There were some excellent displays of precision kata that were first rate.

After a short break, the kumite began.  Again, the same format as kata, the individual events first followed by the team kumite events.  There were some thrilling matches and fabulous competitors which made for a great spectator viewing.  This was also aided by the two large screens videoing the matches for everyone to see.

 

 

Once the semi final team kumite match had finished, it was then into a quick change over for the evening.  A small army of helpers changed the six floor area over into two raised platform stages for the evenings performances.  There was no scope for error as the teams worked quickly to set up.  It was a hive of activity as trophies were laid out, sound checked and final performances and speeches practiced in the background.

You would be forgiven for thinking something was magical but with our very own magician, Mark Gray entertaining visitors in the interval provided for some entertaining slight of hand and entertaining tricks.  While spectators waited outside, there was an opportunity to get a quick snack and purchase some of the event merchandise on sale.  Ako Danes calligraphy artwork was also being offered with all proceeds being donated to the Japan Disaster relief fund.

 

And so it began, with drummers (from Talkingdrums) warming up the crowd as they entered in to the hall performing some excellent sounds to enter the competitors, teams and officials into the hall for a procession on the main stages.   This was followed by sword fighting display from the Sam Khan stunt fighting school as the performers skilfully acted out fighting scenes with real swords!

It was Sensei Bura in his opening speech that paid tribute to the day and to the comradary within the JKA that makes these events so special and thanked by the hosts and all officials for making the day run so smoothly.  And after the JKA England Working Party had taken their bow, it was Sensei Ohta who presented Dreams Come True with a large cheque (quite literally) for £9,000.  This was an amazing achievement for all the JKA-England clubs that helped raised funds throughout the day for such a worthwhile cause and a tribute to the efforts of so many clubs undertaking their time to achieve this.

And straight into the Kata finals. The two stage approach worked excellently as spectators saw a variety of performances from competitors and teams alike.  Individual finalists were presented with their trophy and medals from Sensei Bura, with team kata finalist kindly presented by Matthew Argenti of Dreams Come True.

The final billing for the evening was the Kumite finals with individuals first followed by the team events. Quite simply the standard of competitor was excellent and the kumite matches were first rate.   The finalists were then presented with their trophies and medals by Sensei Ochi (8th Dan) to the rapturous applause of the crowd.

There were just two more presentations to go.  The final award for best Male and Female Cadet were presented by Dr Louis Irving of Tsukuba University and the Flaze award for best overall Male and Female Senior competitor was kindly presented by Mr Alan Lewis CBE of the Hartley Investment Trust and Group.  The applause form the crowd was amazing.  A fabulous end to a fabulous day!

On a final note, thank you to all the spectators and competitors who travelled across Europe and the UK to be at the tournament.  We hope you enjoyed the tournament as much as we did hosting it.

Results can be found here

Photos can be found here

Thanks too for Kevin Webb at RedPepper for photographing the day. Photos can be purchased HERE

 

DVD Coming soon – please look out for details

 

 

Japan Disaster Relief Fund
We are pleased to announce that the final sums raised throughout the day from raffle ticket sales and all proceeds from our Calligrapher, Ako Danes, has finally come to an astonishing £1,150.  Thank you to everyone who donated so generously and to Ako for her donating her time and talent throughout the day.

Thank you
Hosting an event such as the Europeans is not done by one person but a team who have worked tirelessly over the past 18 months to prepare for just one day.  To this end a committee called the JKA England Europeans Working Party was set up who comprised:

• Roger Fabri
• Jeni Cousans
• Jonathan Blanks
• Simon Marchant-Jones; and
• John Harvie

And they couldn’t have done it alone without the help of others.  A special thanks to Nasreen Shah, Cendrine Douillet, Julie O’Halloran, Ita Yahya, Emily Beau, Alison Marchant-Jones and Mrs Chieko Buck for all their help before and during the tournament. 

To Sue Waughman who made the opening ceremony look easy and organised the teams in country order in super human time and to Marie Douillet, Talin Keoshgerian and Amy Walsh for assisting and the children who were mascots and volunteered to help flag in the teams.  And to Tony Cronk who must have run miles backwards getting things together for the day. 

To the timekeepers and recorders who gave up so much of their time and were so committed to getting the results in accurately, you were brilliant and this ran so smoothly.

To Anna Carabine and Jason Ramsey whose announcements made the day seem effortless easy and made everyone aware of where they should be and what was happening.

To GMATT, Clubtek, the staff at the K2 and the Arora – thank you to all the work and coordination you helped us with, as well as looking after our guests and competitors.

And the event would not have run so smoothly if it were not for the army of stewards and helpers during the day whose hard work and sweat quite literally made the tournament happen.  We cannot underestimate our appreciation of your help and hard work.

Finally of course, a tribute to Sensei Ohta, whose guidance and trust in the working party and the JKA-England support teams and helpers abilities to deliver a thrilling and exciting tournament, really did pay off.

It is to all these that thanks must really be shared.

 

 

 

VIPs and sponsors
Thank you to the following organisations for their huge support during the event

• The Japanese Embassy in the United Kingdom
• The Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI)
• Flaze – Martial Arts Clothing
• Tsukuba University - Japan
• KNT! – Japanese Travel agency
• British Gas

And thank you to all the clubs and business that helped support the production of the Europeans Programme and assisted helping us with making the event so special.

John Harvie
JKA England