Leeanne Royle:  Girls' Under 16 Kata, Gold, Girls' 10-11 Yrs Under 5'3" Kumite, Silver. Congratulations Leeanne!

The full squad: Leeanne Royle, Erica Henderson (front, l to r), Erris Keane, Anna Zukova and Eleanore Coates (middle, l to r), Emer Keane, Mark Maguire, Vaidas Gelezele and James Farrelly (back row, l to r) with Coach Sensei Royle and referee Jennifer Madden

 The USKFI took a squad to compete for the first time at the KUGB’s Shotokan Cup in Chesterfield, England last weekend. This individual competition, now in its 35^th year, is open to brown and black belts only, with a very high standard of competitor from all over the UK. An added pressure was the nature of the kata events, with competitors performing individually and with most competitors choosing a brown or black belt kata to perform.

USKFI senior James Farrelly had an excellent day, narrowly missing out in a semi-final place in the Senior Male Kata event. He had an exciting kumite match against England squad member Liam O’Grady with both getting a waza-ari and O’Grady just pipping James to the second waza-ari to take the match. James’ hard work and dedication has clearly begun to pay off as this match was arguably the best he’s fought this year so far.

Emer Keane also showed what a formidable opponent she’s becoming with a strong kumite performance. In the first round, she beat former European Champion Kelly Perry and followed up with a spirited match in the second round. Following a lengthy and exciting fight, she was just beaten by one waza-ari but showed great tactical ability and versatile techniques.

Both Eleanore Coates and Anna Zukova did very well in the Senior Ladies’ Kata event. Both performed strong katas and progressed through to the second round. In a very strong field, they both missed out on a place in the semi-finals by a very narrow margin but both should be very pleased with their performances, particularly as both were unaccustomed to performing brown and black belts katas in the elimination stages.

USKFI junior Leeanne Royle had an excellent day. Firstly, she stormed through the Girls’ Kata eliminations to secure a place in the final. In the final, competitors had to change kata and Leeanne was in the difficult position of being first up. She performed an excellent Empi, to secure the title. In the Girls’ 10-11 Yrs kumite, despite being one of the smaller competitors in the event, Leeanne showed real ability and determination to progress through the eliminations with some very spirited matches. Despite requiring medical attention after some heavy knocks, Leeanne made it through the eliminations and semi-finals. In the final she was against a much taller opponent and, despite a very plucky performance settled for the Silver, just missing out on becoming Grand Champion (when a competitor in KUGB competitions wins both their kata and kumite individual events). Leanne is certainly one to watch out for after a very impressive tally to add on to her USKFI Nationals trophies haul from earlier in the year.

Congratulations to all squad members who competed. The next competition in the USKFI's calendar is its 9^th Shotokan Cup, to be held on October 17^th.