Karatedo Shitokai New Zealand

 

 

In the afternoon it was Kumite, both girls are quite new to Kumite and although they didn’t medal they both fought well.

On Sunday London-Rose competed in the National Champs in the morning, starting with Kata, she had to do three kata, performances getting better each time and finished with a bronze.  In the Kumite it was a mixed field (boys included) and London-rose was unstoppable making the final in style.

The final was a heck of a fight with London-Rose’s opponent throwing punches and kicks with relentless ferocity.  London-Rose just defended her heart out then finished the stronger winning 2-1 London-Rose Gould National Champion – Well done.

The afternoon was the big girls turn at the NZ Secondary Schools competition. Yvette was in the 12-13 year old age group as they take the age at the 1st of January. Yvette didn’t drop a flag in winning the Kata, it was a superb comeback from the previous day’s disappointment.

Olivia also stepped up a notch again winning bronze.

The Kumite, both really improved with Olivia back to her best only losing the semi-final by referees decision, however her fight for the bronze medal was a 6-3 victory and a very competitive fight. Yvette is improving every outing, she only lost the final 1-0.  So at the end of the tournament Shitokai finished with two golds, one silver and four bronzes finishing 15th on the medal table out of 34 clubs.  Not bad for three students.

Well done to the girls and a big thanks to the parents (Nick, Shery, Richard, Julie, Neil and Kelly) their support makes all the difference, behind every athlete is a support team and these parents make a hell of a team.

On the Monday it was training camp for Olivia starting with a yo-yo test.  Olivia did 17.3 which was an unbelievable effort making her the fittest girl there.  After that the next day and a half of Kumite skills and drills was easy (really!!).

I am looking forward to Olivia bringing what she learnt at camp back to club.  To succeed at Nationals takes a lot of work, the best of the best are there and the standard was very high.  New Zealand will have a strong team for Oceania.

Next year Shitokai will hopefully send a bigger team so keep training hard.

 

   

 Yvette Hendrikse, Olivia Crum, London_Rose Gould and Sensei Murray Burns