The LKA took a sizeable Squad along to compete at the 40th North West Open held at the Howe Bridge Sports Centre in Atherton on the 14th March.  The entry for the event seemed much larger this year and the atmosphere was very good, enhanced by the crowd being so close to the competition area, something sadly lacking in most events these days.  It is hugely impressive that this event has run for 40 years and we would like to extend our congratulations to Sensei Higgins on this.

We had a very successful day winning 5 events.  Perhaps the highlight of the day was the Semi-Final match in the Team Kumite between the LKA ‘A’ Team and LKA ‘B’ Team.  It was a very closely fought match, each fight being very competitive and either team could have taken it, but the ‘A’ team pipped it 2-1.  They then went on to beat Halewood in the Final.

Natasha Balyckyi won the Female Kata with a very good Gojushiho-Sho with Zoe Starr taking 3rd and Emma Nunn 4th in the same event.  Vey good performances by all 3 girls.

Ryan Tucker, once again showed his class in winning the Intermediate Male Kumite event in his usual dominating style.  Ryan was also Captain of the victorious LKA ‘A’ Team.

In an all LKA Final, Jordon Probst’s experience and skill proved too much for Michael Hardy.  Michael had performed very well in reaching the final of the Boys Kumite Over 5’5” though, winning his Semi Final match by Ippon.  Very good for a Purple Belt!

Finally, Ronan Cain won the Pee Wee Kata event with Bassai Dai, his first competition win, hopefully with many more to come.

The full list of results are as follows: