2019 WUKF World Championships
On the 18th June, the selected SSK squad travelled to Bratislava, Slovakia to compete in the 2019 WUKF World Championships. After a Wednesday full of registrations, coaching and referee meetings the competition got underway on Thursday with team kumite and cadets open kata!
Day 1 - Thursday
A very long day! Max, Joel and Stevie took to the mats early on in team kumite. Winning their first fight against Slovakia convincingly, the boys showed great grit and determination. Unfortunately, in the next round the boys lost out to a talented Slovenian team who eventually made the final. Just missing out on the medal rounds.
Jennie Trow fought well in the EKA kumite teams, unlucky draws meant they had tough first rounds and unfortunately were beaten through to the next round.
Conall Sheehy was next up in the 14-15yrs Open kata. Always going to be a tough category packed with talented, experienced athletes. Con put on an excellent performance finished a very credible 20th. A looooong wait saw Con take to the mat at 10pm...after an 9am start. He fought brilliantly being slightly unlucky with a few decision possibly wrongly going against him.
Day 2 – Friday
Daisy - Growing in confidence every time she steps on the mat, Daisy performed like an absolute pro! Making the final and finishing 6th.
Dan T - Performed 2 excellent katas in a category packed with much larger/older looking boys! Just missed out on a place in the final.
Bhuvan - After being told he was on and then being made to wait a few more hours Bhuvan finished a very credible 7th in his first WUKF World Championships.
Sai - Not to be out done by his younger brother, Sai finished a credible 10th in his first WUKF World champs.
Max - After a wrong turn in his semi final kata, Max unfortunately didn’t progress to the final. Up until his mistake he was threatening the medal positions. Definitely the most improved competitor this week and 100% one to watch in future championships!
Grace - Making her second appearance at a WUKF World Championships, Grace performed amazingly but a slight bobble took her just outside of a place in the final.
Conall - Took to the mats in a very tough cadets shitoryu kata category. Being on the younger side of the 14-15yrs age bracket, Con will have another year to grow into this category! Watch this space!
Joel - Performing with his usual class, stepped up into his new 13yr old shitoryu kata category and after 3 solid rounds took the title for another year. WUKF World kata Champion 2019 - Joel Eccleston
Everyone’s back in action bright and early tomorrow for kumite.
Day 3 – Saturday
Joanne - Through to tomorrow’s kumite semi finals after two ippon wins in the prelims today.
Dan T - A few unfortunate refereeing decisions left Dan with a first round loss to Russia. A shame for such a talented fighter but definitely a fire lit for the next one.
Sai - Unfortunate draw for Sai who met a talented Romania fighter in the first round, excellent first showing for a Worlds debut though.
Max - Again a tough draw gave Max a talented Romanian in the first round, a very close fight with some excellent exchanges between the two fighters. Unfortunately, this time Max lost out.
Daisy - After a long long wait Daisy eventually took to the mats but suffered at the hands of a poor refereeing decision - a head kick brilliantly blocked by Daisy was deemed to have made a good connection and that unfortunately was the end of the road for her competition.
Grace - Gave an excellent account of herself in her first round fight and managed to score a cracking hook kick to come from behind to level the scores but unfortunately couldn’t quite close the fight off before the Romanian.
Conall - Fought brilliantly in a very tough category, again being the younger side of the 14-15yrs age bracket, Con will be coming back with vengeance next year!!
Joel - WUKF World Championships Bronze Medallist Fighting his way through a stacked category, Joel had some very tough fights on his way to the semi finals and took some big knocks that required the medics attention but returned to the mat to clinch the Bronze!
Bhuvan Vaddhireddy - WUKF World Championships Bronze Medallist The perfect fighter today! Cool, calm and collected! Bhuvan, in his first appearance at a World Championships, listened and perfectly executed coaches instructions to fire through 4 tough fights to take the Bronze!
Day 4 - Finals
The finals day left us with our Senior, Joanne, competing in the Shitoryu kata and ippon kumite finals. First in the Shitoryu kata section, after a tense tiebreaker with Italy, she clinched the Silver medal! WUKF World Championships Silver Medallist. Then on to the Ippon kumite finals. After two more impressive wins by ippon Joanne became: WUKF World kumite Champion 2019.
On behalf of the association we would also like to say a huge thanks to our association referee, Paula Trow. As an association we have to supply a referee for WUKF Championships and Paula again took on the thankless task! It is a long week, 1 day of training/meetings and 4 days of competition often starting at 8am and finishing at well past 10pm! Not seeing the squad or watching her own kids compete. As a squad we really appreciate it. Also, congratulations on being promoted up the international refereeing ladder to “referee B” level.
