Saturday the 9^th of November saw the Student National Championship of the Karate Union of Great Britain, which took place at the Queen’s Park Leisure Centre in Chesterfield. This is a national championship of the association under which CUKC practises, bringing together student karateka from all over the UK.

Many brave CUKC karateka entered the competition and tried their best, although we went in with one very valuable member of our team, Chris Hamilton, having to drop out due to a rib injury.

The event started off with Men’s Captain Putu Agus Khorisantono filling in for Chris Hamilton in the Men’s Individual Dan Grade Kata event. Not being accustomed to Heian elimination rounds, Putu was unable to make it into the finals. Both Ravi Mani and Bence Kasza entered the Men’s Individual Kyu Grade Kata event, although Ravi was only able to make it to the second round of eliminations where he lost to one of the finalists despite performing a powerful Heian Yondan. However, Bence Kasza performed very well in his eliminations, making it into the finals, where he gave a rousing performance of Heian Godan that earned him a silver medal for the Men’s Individual Kyu Grade Kata event.

In the Women’s Individual Dan Grade Kata event, both President Millie Morgan and Maeve Brittle tried their best but were unfortunately unable to make it to the finals, whereas Beth Noble and Imane Bou-Saboun entered the Women’s Individual Kyu Grade event. Although Imane did not score high enough to make it to the final round, Beth performed very well and made it to the finals, where she showed off her strong Bassai Dai which earned her a bronze in the event.

The strong representation of the women’s team was also apparent in the Women’s Individual Dan Grade Kumite event, where Olivia Lavigne, Danielle Ball, Maeve Brittle and Women’s Captain Eleanor Lee entered. The tense event saw Danielle and Eleanor face each other in the finals where Danielle won gold and Eleanor won silver for CUKC. In the Kyu Grade event, Maddison Ball and Beth Noble entered and Maddison received a gold in Individual Women’s Kyu Grade Kumite.

The Men’s Individual Dan Grade Kumite event had only Masanori Kono and Putu Khorisantono enter, as Chris Hamilton was no longer able to make it. However, neither Masa nor Putu were able to make it to the finals. In the Kyu Grade event, Bence Kasza managed to make it to the finals and earn himself a silver medal.

Despite being one man down, the men’s kumite team, consisting of Putu Khorisantono, Masanori Kono, Bence Kasza and reserve Ravi Mani, managed to secure bronze medals after intense round-robin matches with both NTU and Tamworth. However, the Women’s Team Kumite event was much more successful with the Women’s 1 Team (Eleanor, Danielle and Maeve, with Millie as reserve) winning gold medals for the event and the Women’s 2 Team (Olivia, Maddison and Beth) fighting very well but not able to make it to the finals.

The competition ended with the Mixed Team Kata event, where the team consisting of Millie Morgan, Putu Khorisantono and Ravi Mani secured the third place with a performance of Bassai Dai, despite only having been able to organise a kata team one week before the competition itself.

All in all, CUKC members should be very proud of the members who represented them at the KUGB Student Nationals. Congratulations to all involved!