Members of the Bath club had a good day at the KUGB Southern Area Championships last Saturday – and very successful in many ways. Competitions always bring a sense of camaraderie between the competitors and this was no exception. The ‘Bath squad’ consisted of Richard, Emma, Amy, Kieran and Ron.

Kieran was first up in the Veterans’ kata, where he performed Sochin to secure a place in the finals. Ron was next in the ‘open’ kata event. Although he didn’t get to the finals, he did put beat the competitor who denied him a place in the last 8 at the Nationals 3 years ago – as Amy put it, ‘get revenge’ on him!

Next were Emma and Amy, who both performed Heian Yondan. Emma got through to the finals but Amy missed out by a narrow margin – still an excellent result for her first competition. These three categories had all taken place on Area 4, whereas Richard was on Area 1 so he had no-one to watch/coach/encourage him.

In the finals, Kieran drew with the eventual winner, but due to the ‘count back’ method of adding the scores he lost out by 0.1, taking the Silver. Emma performed Heian Nidan in her final and also took Silver. This was her 4th competition, and 4th medal, an excellent record.

The ‘competitor of the year’ trophy table so far has Kieran and Emma tied for 1st place, with 50 points each. Watch this space…