Medals for karate experts
CARYS Jones travelled from Simon Coope Karate School to Berlin to the Banzai Cup, one of the biggest karate championships of the year.
On the Saturday she fought in the individual competition. She won her first fight 10-0 against a girl from Belarus, however she then fought a girl from Germany in a fight that was very scrappy and bad tempered. It became a war of attrition with both fighters receiving three warnings for contact, her loss of composure cost her dearly with the final score being 7-3 to the German.
Fortunately the German girl went through all the subsequent rounds eventually taking gold and Carys came back in repechage fighting for bronze. In her first fight she won 6-1 before taking on the current European Champion Eva Brognon from the Belgium National Team.
Again it was a brutal fight with both girls receiving warnings for contact. With two seconds to go Carys was 5-3 down but delivered a kick to the back which scored and brought the score to 5-5. Fortunately Carys had scored the first point and so won the fight on the Senshu rule. She then won the bronze final 6-0 to take bronze. On the Sunday she was fighting in the teams. Carys fought as the number one in her. She won her first fight 10-0 then in the semi-final she won 9-1. In the final they fought the Belgium National Team, including Evan Brognon, Evan changed her position from fighting number one to fighting number two to avoid Carys, and while Carys won 4-2 unfortunately the team lost by two points to take silver. Carys was over the moon as it was only her third trip abroad she only lost one fight taking home a bronze and a silver.
Will Tatham and Carys Jones from Simon Coope Karate School travelled to the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh to compete in the British International Karate Championships.
Will Tatham won his first fight 3-1, but then lost his second fight to a fighter from Scotland in a very scrappy fight which saw lots of 1 flags but not getting the 2 flags required to score. However he then came back in repechage and won the first fight 6-0 before losing to Scotland for Bronze in a very close fought fight.
Carys was on fire, she won her first fight 10-0 then won her second fight 9-0 which put her in to the semifinal. She then won her semifinal 5-0 which ensured she got through to the final. She was then fighting the Scottish favourite, she landed numerous techniques but only received one flag for each.
Fortunately she did score the first point so although the fight was a draw 2-2 she won on the Senshu rule which means the first fighter to score a point has the advantage.
This means that Carys Jones has won every major title available in Britain this year. Even though for the British International she moved from the 12 to 13 years section to the 14 to 15 years section, she won the Kyu grade Championship in February, the English National Championship in April, the British Championship in June and now with the British International Championships she has completed the whole set.