The LKA held its first Club Championships at the Farsley Dojo on Sunday 11th April.  60 LKA members turned up to compete with categories split for both children and adults.
The standard was very high with some exceptional performances in some categories.

In the Childrens events, we had a Grand Champion with James Brown winning both the Childrens Kata and Boys Kumite.  Hot on his heels was Holly Dickinson who came second to James in the Kata and also won the Girls Kumite category.  Excellent all round ability from both these youngsters.  Notable in these events was Kieran Tucker (Ryan’s younger brother) making his competitive debut.  In his first ever fight he won by Ippon with an excellent Jodan punch.  He also managed to come third in the Children’s Kata.  Not a bad effort for a Red Belt.

In the Masters Kumite (for Males aged 35 and over) Peter Banks fought very well to beat Daryn Hobden to the title.

The Senior Kata event was very close.  Three competitors initially tied for first place.  When the previously discarded top and bottom scores were added back in, Natasha Balyckyi and Ashley Scott were still tied for first place, leaving Glenn Riley in third.  Natasha and Ashley both had to perform their Kata again and Natasha’s Gojushiho Sho beat Ashley’s Unsu into second place.

The same two ladies met in the final of the Female Kumite.  With a couple of girls having withdrawn on the day due to injury, there were only 6 girls left in the event.  So we divided them into two pools of three, with everyone fighting each other once within their pool.  The winner of each pool progressed to the final with the second placed people fighting off for overall third.  Zoe Starr beat Abi Chapman to third place and Ashley got the better of Natasha in the final.

The Male Kumite event was for those aged 16 years upwards.  The standard was very high with quite a number of KUGB Junior Squad members competing.  Jordon Probst pulled off a superb Ippon victory over Ryan Tucker in the second round, before losing in the next round to eventual Champion Tom Little who outpointed Joe Hart in the final.  Many of the fights were very close and excellent spirit, sharpness and techniques were shown by those involved.

James Brown was given the award for Best Overall Child and Natasha Balyckyi the Best Overall Adult.
We would like to congratulate all those that took part in what was a superb afternoons Karate.  Many thanks to all those who came along to support their family and friends and  also to John Bostock of Gaunts Ltd, who kindly sponsored the trophies.
The results were: