The LKA had it’s most succesful results ever at the 45th KUGB National Championships at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. In total we took 14 different medal placings, which included 4 Gold, 1 Silver and 9 Bronze medals.
Starting off the wins was Emelye O’Brien who won the Girls Kumite Over 5’3” event. This was the second year in succession that Emelye has won, last year’s victory being in the younger 10-11 Year category. The fact that Emelye has only recently turned 12 and was therefore one of the youngest competitors in an event for 12-15 year olds made her victory all the more impressive. Her versatility proved too much for her opponent in the final and Emelye took a well deserved win. In third place in the same event was Holly Dickinson.
Next victory came to James Brown who battled his way to the Boys Kumite Over 5’5” category. This was also James’ second win in 3 years, having previously won the 5′-5’5” event in 2009. James’ fast Gyaku-Tsuki’s were too much for his opponent and despite a few facial injuries, he took a clear win. His elder brother Stephen took a Bronze in the Junior Kumite 18-20 Years category.
Jordon Probst proved to be far too fast for his opponent and took a very quick victory in the Junior Kumite 16 & 17 Years old event. Throughout the day Jordon beat people with impressive, strong techniques including an incredible back kick in the earlier rounds. Again, this was not the first time Jordon has won a KUGB title, having previously won in 2005 and 2006. In the same event, Joe Finlay took third place.
Ashley Scott finished off the days winning performances by taking the Female Kumite title. Having been frustratingly close on a number of previous tries, this time she showed herself to be a very worthy winner with her dsiplay of punches, sweeps and kicks proving too much for the others to live with. Since the ESKA Championships in Germany last year, Ashley’s form seems to have gone from strength to strength.
In the Male Team Kumite our B Team were beaten 2-0 in the final by the very strong Halewood team. The team, which consisted of Ryan Tucker, Stephen Brown, Jordon Probst and Joe Finlay did extremely well in reaching the final. Ryan also took Bronze in the Senior Male Kumite after a very hard fight against Jon McGorian ended in defeat. Indeed all four members of the team took medals individually, which the A Team members failed to do, though they did come very close!
It was all in all an excellent day and with 38 competitors taking part we again showed our strength in depth. The full list of our results was:
| Senior Female Kumite | 1st | Ashley Scott |
| Junior Male Kumite 16-17 Years | 1st | Jordon Probst |
| Boys Kumite Over 5’5” | 1st | James Brown |
| Girls Kumite Over 5’3” | 1st | Emelye O’Brien |
| Male Team Kumite | 2nd | Ryan Tucker, Stephen Brown, Jordon Probst and Joe Finlay |
| Senior Male Kumite | 3rd | Ryan Tucker |
| Female Team Kumite | 3rd | Ashley Scott, Mel Finlay, Abi Chapman and Zoe Starr |
| Junior Female Kumite | 3rd | Mel Finlay |
| Junior Male Kumite 18-20 Years | 3rd | Stephen Brown |
| Junior Male Kumite 16-17 Years | 3rd | Joe Finlay |
| Boys Kumite Over 5′-5’5” | 3rd | Hayden Steele |
| Boys Kumite 5′-5’5” | 3rd | Tom Mitchell |
| Boys Kumite Under 5′ | 3rd | Dan Martin |
| Girls Kumite Over 5’3” | 3rd | Holly Dickinson |
The full list of our competitors was:
Ashley Scott, Daryn Hobden, Zoe Starr, David Wright, Brian Lister, Jordon Probst, Ryan Tucker, Mel Finlay, Joe Finlay, Joe Hart, Stephen Brown, James Brown, HollyDickinson, Tom Little, Hayden Steele, Sam Goulden, Oliver Deane, Dan Martin, Ronan Cain, Abi Chapman, Tom Mitchell, Callam Mackintosh, Lizzie Andrews, Jed Dickinson, Kate Lister, Jamie Horwell, Callam Payne, Emelye O’ Brien, Adam Banks, Connor Payne, Sam Mitchell, Laura Mackintosh, David Lister, Jude O’ Brien, Joe Bulmer and Kieran Tucker
