Six LKA members and a number of supporters and family made the trip to Bielsko-Biala in southern Poland for the annual ESKA European Championships.  Joe Finlay was competing in the Cadet events, Jordon Probst, Melissa Finlay and Stephen Brown were competing in the Junior events and Ryan Tucker and Ashley Scott were competing in the Senior events.

The competition started on Friday 25th with the Cadet events where Joe Finlay was making his International debut.  Joe performed very well to take an individual bronze medal in Kumite, an excellent first effort by this promising your man.

Joe’s Sister, Mell was unlucky in losing by Ippon to a deceptively talented Ukranian competitor in the first round.  Jordon Probst and Stephen Brown were part of the England Team that took Bronze medal in Junior Team Kumite. 

Ashley Scott was part of the Female Team Kumite trio that took a very creditable Silver, losing 2-1 to the superb Austrian Team.  The Austrian girls had taken Gold and Silver in the Individual events and were an extremely impressive team. 

Ryan Tucker came home with 2 medals.  An Individual Bronze and a Team Silver.  In the team event, the England team lost very narrowly to the Germans.  After the initial 5 fights, it was an exact 2-2 draw and so each team had to send out an extra fighter.  In the deciding match the German proved too stong and gave them the Gold.

In the individual events, Ryan made the most dramatic moment of the entire event.  Fighting against former European and World Champion Dmitri Formiriakov in the individual Quarter Final, Ryan was a Wazari down against his giant Russian opponent.  With literally a second left on the clock, Ryan caught Dmitri with a Jodan Mawashi Geri to score and Ippon and take the match.  It was a sensational moment which brought the house down.  Ryan went on to take a Bronze, losing to the eventual winner, also from Russia.