GKR STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS - SEPTEMBER 27 2009

A new venue for this year's State Championships saw some great action on the day through all divisions. The new hall is centrally located, has excellent viewing from it's stands and a spacious floor which led to a great day. It is planned to use the same venue for all future events and with good promotion should lead to larger entries to make an even better tournament participation. lunch time demonstrations, saw Sensei Joe Van Strijp and Sensei Daniel Tregenza perform Kata Sanseru, first with Sensei Daniel performing a move and then Sensei Joe following with an equivalent move with a Bokken. Sensei Joe then followed up with a very impressive 6 tile break, which was well received.

Following the Bow in and welcome, Junior action commenced, with keen competition throughout the divisions. The 7 & under 8-7 kyu division had some exceptional performances from the young competitors. Bronte Lack won Kata from Christian Hannaford, with Owen Ebert third. In Kumite, it was Bronte again the winner, from Owen, with Christian third. In 7 - 9 year 6-4th Kyu combined division, Lateilia Mobbs took out Kata from Eden Van Rensburg, with Thomas Robinson third. In Kumite, Jordan Haffner took out the title from Thomas, with Casey Boller third. In 10-11 year 8-7 kyu section, Oliver Lack took out both Kata and Kumite from Samantha Thompson, with Benjamin Spence third in Kata. The kumite final went to extra time with Oliver just pipping Samantha for the Gold Medal. In the 6-4th Male section of this age group, Thomas Marsden took out Kata over Jalen Croxton, but Jalen took out the kumite final from Thomas. The female division saw a Kata victory to Jasmine Harford, with Demi Harford second and Jamie Lonie third. In Kumite, Jamie won the final from Demi, with Jasmine third. Angel Marston took out the 3rd kyu+ Female Kata. The 12-13 year age group has a number of divisions. Michael Davies was a dual winner in the Male 8-7th kyu section. Margie Hookway took out Kata in the Female 8-7th kyu section from Kristen Gill, with Georgia Martin pipping Lucille Lott in the 6-4th kyu Female event. These two girls divisions were combined for Kumite, with Lucille Lott winning the final from Georgia Martin, with Kristen Gill third. The Male 6-4th kyu section saw Aaron Hittmann, Mark Webber and Dylan Boller fill the same respective placings for both Kata and Kumite. The Male 12-15 years 3rd kyu and above Male Kata was won by Jason Spiteri from Jake Cooke, with Daniel Spencer third. In Kumite, Daniel took out the event from Jason, with Jake third. Callum Boyd won the 14-15 year Male 8-7th kyu Kata, Daniel Andrew took out Male 14-15 year 6-4th Kyu Kata from Nathan Perrett, with Jondalar Grenfell-Sexton, the 3rd kyu + section Kata winner. The combined Kumite event was won by Nathan over Daniel, with Jondalar third. Greg Hookway was the winner of Kata in the 16-17 year Male 8-7th kyu event and competed with the 18-34 year old in Kumite and came third.

Senior divisions also saw strong competition throughout the various age groups and divisions. In the 18-34 year age group, Andre Langos won Kata from Matthre Johns in Male 8-7 kyu section. Ben Medlan won the Kumite, Andre was second and Greg Hookway third. In the Female section of this level, Suzanne Beagley won Kata, Kirsty Webb was second, with Kylie Lydeamone third. In Kumite, Suzanne won the final from Kirsty. Both the 6-4th kyu sections saw some great competition. In the Male Kata, Mark Ingle won the event, with Corey Burnside second and Martin Henschke in third place. Kumite was tight, with Corey taking the final from Mark. The Female kata event was won by Tamsin Stanton, from Tabitha Dodd, with Angela Johnson third. In Kumite, Tamsin took out the double from Angela, with Tabitha in third place. The 3rd Kyu+ Male section was also hotly contested, with Nik McDonald, Shaun Williams and Fraser Thompson all performing well in Kata and finishing in that order. Kumite saw some great action, with Nik taking out the final from Shaun, with Fraser placed third. The Female section also saw a similar scenario with Kate Jamieson, Zoe Tyler and Becky Weldrake finishing in that order in both Kata and Kumite.

Veteran Divisions always provide keen competition. In Male 8-7th kyu Kata and Kumite, Eddy Spence took out the title. Female Kata was won by Linda Donnellan, with Julie Boyd second. Male 6-4th kyu Kata was won by Craig Johnson from Anton Van Rensburg, with the same result in Kumite. Male 3rd kyu+ Kata was won by Sean Hutton from Clive Whetton, with Sean also proving too strong for Clive in Kumite. Similar to the Female Division, where Kirsty Kane took out the Kata title from Julie Tynan, and in Kumite Kirsty prevailed over Julie as well. The 45 years + Male 8-7th kyu Kata and Kumite saw the same placegetters in Dean McGill first, Matt Warrick second and Albert Tuddenham third. The 6-4th kyu section was similar with Steve Tyler first, David Thornton second and Brenton Wells third in both Kata and Kumite. The Female Kata event in this section was won by Christine Alomes from Fran Whiteley, with Christine Cope third. Kumite was won by Christine Cope from Cathy Croci, with Fran Whiteley third. Male 3rd Kyu + Kata and Kumite were won by John McDonald, with Peter Thompson second in both events. Female Veteran (45+ years) Kata was won by Barb Hessellschwerdt from Chris McDonald, with Mary Bambacus third. In Kumite, Chris was first, Barb second and Mary third.

No surprises in Male Senior Team Kata, with Alan Gillert, Beau Beaumont and Daniel Tregenza taking out the event. In a reward for hard work, the Female Senior Team Kata was taken out by Tamsin Stanton, Becky Weldrake and Tabitha Dodds, who took the points over Dragana Calic, Lesley McDonald and Rebecca Hunt.

The afternoon session saw the Male and Female Black Belt events run in the one ring. The stand was packed to see the Kata events, with the ladies up first. First place went to Kirsty Kane from Lesley McDonald, with Jess Dubois third. The Male event was won by Beau Beaumont, with Alan Gillert second and Jeremy Thompson third. Female semi-final action saw Dragana Calic outpoint Lesley McDonald to make the final, whilst in the other semi-final, Julie Tynan scored a solid win over Jess Dubois. The third place bout saw Lesley take the medal over Jess in a tight bout. The first place bout was a battle of styles, with the attacking style of Dragana finally taking the points from the counter-attacking style of Julie. A large Male division saw Jeremy Thompson make the semi-finals against Seb Nazar. The battle of the Modbury Sensei's went down to the wire, with Jeremy moving onto the final after sudden death. Daniel Tregenza had a tough bout against Craig Spencer in the other semi-final but took the points to move onto the final. Seb and Craig had a strong tussle for the third place medal with a few warnings for contact on the way, with Seb finally taking out the bout. The final was another tight contest between Jeremy and Daniel. The early points were shared but Daniel got a lead which he maintained to take out first place.

Team Kumite events completed the day, and as expected the stronger Region 23 Black Belt Team of Dragana Calic, Lesley McDonald, Kirsty Kane, Jess Dubois and Julie Tynan prevailed over the lower ranked Team of Tamsin Stanton, Tabatha Dodds, Becky Weldrake, Kate Jamieson and Angela Johnson. There were three teams in the Male Event and first up was Team Jungle against Team Garner. It was a 5-0 win by the favourites. Next up Team Jungle was against Team Burnside, with the same result, the highlight being Corey Burnside, substituting for the injured Beau Beaumont, winning his bout against Darren Twinning. This win meant Team Jungle took out the event. Team Garner then faced Team Burnside for second and third places and it proved to be an exciting battle, with the decision going down to the very last point to decide the medals. Team Garner took out second but Team Burnside took it right up to them and were very pleased by their performance.

Photos Medalists: Female Black Belts, Male Black Belts, Male 3-1st Kyu (19-34 years), Female Veteran (35-44 years), Juniors, Juniors,

Photos Action: Tabitha Dodds, Tamsin Stanton, Female Sync Kata, Darren Twinning vs Craig Spencer, Juniors, Juniors, Beau vs Jeremy, Beau vs Jeremy, Alan vs Seb, Alan vs Seb

Photos Kata: Daniel Tregenza, Darren Twinning, Kingsley Garner, Craig Spencer, Stephanie Antolis, Junior, Junior, Junior, Junior

 Thanks to John McDonald, Tamsin Stanton, David Thornton and others for Photos. Check out the "Kicks" Video in the Video Gallery