Tactical error costs young fighter Carys
CARYS Jones from Midland Karate Association travelled to Luxembourg to compete in the Lion Cup.
The Lion Cup was being used by many European Karate teams for selections to the Junior World Championships to be held in Tenerife in October.
Because of this all the girls in Carys’ section competed for their respective national teams.
With 46 people in her section it was the biggest competition she has entered so far.
In her first round she fought a girl from Luxem- bourg comfortably winning 10-0.
In her next round she fought a girl from the Danish National Team and won 6-0 while in the next round she fought a girl from the Norwegian National Team and won 5-0.
That took her through to the pool final where she met a girl from the French National Team.
A big proportion of the National Team coaches were now watching as the section drew to a close.
These are the coaches who will be travelling to Tenerife for the Junior World Champi- onship.
Carys was now under orders from her coach to limit the types of techniques she threw.
She went 1-0 down but then recovered to make it 5-1.
At that point her coach asked her to defend only and this allowed the French girl back in to the fight.
With six seconds to go the score stood at 5-4 to Carys.
But it was then Carys caught the edge of the area with her foot and received a penalty for Jogi which saw her disqualified.
Unfortunately the French girl then lost in her next round to the eventual winner from Norway but did go on to win Bronze.
This was only Carys’ second competition abroad.
While she was disappointed not to medal, the manner with which she won her individual fights, proves she can compete at the very highest levels in Europe.
She is really looking forward to competing in Berlin in two weeks’ time at the Banzai Cup.