GKR Round 1 March 28 2010

The first GKR Tournament for 2010 had around 100 competitors, with some divisions well supported and others small. However, the quality of Karate display was very good. The venue was set up with 4 rings with plenty of area around each ring for competitors. Following the traditional bow in and welcome, competition began in each of the rings with the junior grades.

In the 7 & under 8-7th kyu combined section, the Kata winner was Tara Jeromel, from Alicia Harford, with Christina Akele third. In Kumite, Alicia won the final from Christina, with Shane Cass-Allard taking the bout for third place. In the 8 - 9 year 8-7th kyu combined section, Kata was won by Eben Vanrensburg, Sienna Kulinski was second, with Darcy Munchenberg third. The Kumite event was close with Sienna winning the final from Duncan Spencer, with Eben Vanrensburg taking out third place. The Kata winner for the 10 - 11 year 8-7th kyu combined event was Jessica Lombardi, second was Shannon Warrick, with Matilda Hilton in third place. Once again Kumite was close with some good bouts. James Swift and Krystina Diaons fought out the final with James taking out the event. Rani Kulinski took out the third place bout. The 10-13 years 6-4th Kyu Combined division had several State Team members competing and the standard was high. In Kata, Stephanie Antolis was first, Jalen Croxton second and Demi Harford third. The Kumite was fiercely competed, with Stephanie Antolis and Jalen Croxton making the final. In a tight bout, it was Jalen who took out an excellent final. Kate Pettman was the third place winner. The Kata winner in the 10-11 years 3 Kyu & above Combined division was Jasmine Harford, who was a bit too experienced for Thomas Robinson. Thomas took it right up to Jasmine in the Kumite, but once again Jasmine's State Team experience enabled her to win the Kumite over Thomas. The 12-14 years 8-4th Kyu Female event had some good new competitors in it. Margy Hookway won the Kata from Lucille Lott, with Ashley Langkilde third. In Kumite, Lucille took the final over Margie, with Ashley again third in her first tournament. The 12-13 years 3rd Kyu & above Male event had two very experienced competitors in the field and they shared the spoils. Jake Cooke won the Kata from Jason Spiteri, but in the Kumite, Jason prevailed over Jake to take out the event. Similar in the 12-15 years 3rd Kyu & above Female event, where Tegan Miller won the Kata from Angel Marston, but Angel won the Kumite over Tegan. In the 14-15 years 8-7th Kyu Male Kata, Callum Boyd won the event from Rhys Dix. In Kumite, Brendon Wilkins won the final over Callum, with Rhys third. The 14-15 years 6-4th Kyu Male Kata was won by Daniel Andrew from Aaron Hittmann, with Daniel too strong for Aaron to take out the Kumite event as well. It was a good morning's showing by the Juniors, with many top performances by the young competitors.

Mid morning and it was time for the older competitors to strut their stuff. The two competitors in the 16-20 yrs 6-4th Kyu Female event shared the results. In Kata, Amie Gibard narrowly won from Kirsty Webb, but in Kumite, Kirsty took out a hard fought final from Amie. The 18-34 yrs Incl. 8-7th Kyu Male division had some quite promising competitors and competition was strong. Kata was won by Wesley Clark, from Shane Croxton, with Justin Baldwin third. Justin won the Kumite final from Ben Medlen, with Wesley taking out the third place bout. The 18-34 yrs Incl. 6-4th Kyu Male event was a combined event, with the youngest competitor Jondalar Grenfell-Sexton winning Kata. Nik McDonald took out second place, with Mark Ingle third. In Kumite, it was Nik who won the final from Mark, with Jondalar in third place. There were a few new competitors in the 18-34 yrs Incl. 6-4th Kyu Female section and they did well. The winner of the Kata event was Rhiannon Ralph, Tabitha Dodd was second and Suzanne Begley was third. In Kumite, Tabitha was too strong for Rhiannon, with Suzanne taking out third place. The 18-34 yrs Incl. 3rd Kyu & above Female event had a very strong field and the standard was high. In Kata, Kate Jamieson won from Jess Dubois, with Zoe Tyler third. Kumite saw some excellent bouts, with top quality sparring throughout. Once again it was Kate taking the Gold Medal from a rapidly improving Tamsin Ing. Zoe Tyler took out the third place bout.

The Veteran events are always keenly battled out, sometime more in mind than body, but still a high quality competition. In Veteran (35-44 yrs) 8-7th Kyu Male Kata, Chris Taylor was first, with Craig Smith second and Chris Munchenberg third. Kumite action saw Chris Munchenberg take out the final from Craig Smith, with Chris Taylor third. The Veteran (35-44 yrs) 8-7th Kyu Female Kata was won by Joanne Corino, Julie Munchenberg was second and Julie Boyd took out third. Kumite saw Julie Boyd take out the final from Julie Munchenberg. Veteran (35-44 yrs) 6-4th Kyu Male Kata was won by Paul Jeromel, from Warren Hilton, with Craig Johnston in third place. Kumite was tight, with Craig taking out the final from David Boyd. Warren Hilton took out the third place bout. Five ladies competed in the Veteran (35-44 yrs) 6th-4th Female events. In Kata, Lena Ong was first, Linda Donnellan took out second, with Di Wilson third. Kumite was keenly contested with Angela Carapetis defeating Linda in one semi-final, with Tracy defeating Di in the other. Angela went on to win a close final from Tracey Kramer, with  Di Wilson successful in the battle for third place over Linda. All ladies won a medal. Veteran (35-44 yrs) 3rd Kyu & above Male Kata was won by Sean Hutton from Steve Howard, with Des Till in third place. The Kumite final was between Sean and Des, with Sean taking the points. Steve was placed third. Senior Veteran (45 yrs plus) 8-7th Kyu Male Kata saw Matt Warrick take out the event from Mark Kulinski, with Frederick Hamden in third place. In Kumite, Ron White won the final from Frederick Hamden, with Matt Warrick in third place. Senior Veteran (45 yrs plus) 6-4th Kyu Male Kata was won by Albert Tuddenham, Steve Tyler was second and Brenton Wells was third. In Kumite, Brenton took out first place, Steve was second and Albert third. The Senior Veteran (45 yrs plus) 3rd Kyu & above Female is one of the best supported, hotly contested but friendliest events and of a high quality. In Kata, it was Jenny Miller who took out the Gold from Barb Hessellschwerdt, with  Mary Bambacus, in third place. In Kumite, Chris McDonald Julie won the final from Julie Tynan, with Barb Hesselschwerdt successful in the third place bout.

After the lunch break, it was time for the Demonstrations. First up, Tegan Miller and Jason Spiteri demonstrated their Sanseru demonstration that took out second place in Juniors at the 2009 NAS Nationals. Jason and Tegan first performed the Kata syncronised and then went through several open hand Bunkai applications before several more with a Jo. It was very well received by the audience and an inspiration for all the Juniors. John McDonald and Jenny Miller then performed their Sepei demonstration which took out second place in the Senior Demonstration at the NAS Nationals in 2009. Similar in style to the junior demonstration, John, with a Bo and Jenny open handed, first performed the Kata syncronised and then Bunkai applications, most involving the Bo and then a Baseball bat. It was also very well received.

Time for the Syncronised Kata events, and in the Juniors, first place went to Jason Spiteri, Tegan Miller and Angel Marston. Second place went to Demi Harford, Jasmine Harford and Lucille Lott, with the very young team of Sienna Kulinski, Rani Kulinski and Krystina Dianos doing Sensei Tabitha Dodd proud in taking out third place. Female Senior Syncronised Forms was hotly contested with Kirsty Kane, Lesley McDonald and Julie Tynan in first place, Kate Jamieson, Jenny Miller and Dragan Calic in second, and Julie Boyd, Julie Munchenberg and Suxanne Begley in third place. next up was the Open events. Due to four of the regular competitors either competing interstate or being injured, the Male Black Belt Open only had two competitors. Both Darren Twining and Ian Rollings performed Seisan with Darren being awarded first place. The Male Kumite had only Darren and Ian competing, but they did spar well, with Darren narrowly taking out the event. It was a very strong field in the Female Black Belt Open Kata. Lesley McDonald took out the event, but there was a tie between Catherine Wilkinson and Dragana Calic for second place. Both chose Sepei for their second, different Kata, which made it interesting. The split decision of the judges saw Catherine placed second and Dragana third. All the unplaced girls, Rebecca Hunt, Jenny Miller, Jess Dubois, and Julie Tynan, performed well and only a few 10th of a point separated them.  The Female Kumite event was tightly contested, with some great sparring from the girls. First up was Julie Tynan against Jess Dubois and it was Jess who took out the bout. Dragana Calic and Catherine Wilkinson sparred next and it was point for point, with Dragana edging out Catherine to progress. The third bout was between Lesley McDonald and Rebecca Hunt, with Lesley proving too strong for Rebecca to advance to the finals. First up, Dragana sparred Jess and took the points. The next bout was between Lesley and Dragana and it was point for point, until Lesley drew away to take out the Gold. Jess Dubois was automatically third. It was disappointing to see that with 6 competitors, that there was no third place bout, with the 3 first round winners sparring off for the medals. Surely two competitors could have been seeded and given a first round bye to reduce the field to 4 for semi finals. 

The final events for the day were the Team Kumite events, and although Team Jungle was absent, it didn't stop the two Male Kumite Teams present from putting on a good event. In a split result, it was the scratch team of Nik McDonald, Ian Rollings, Craig Johnson, Sean Hutton and Steve Howard who took out the event from Burnside Dojo, represented by Fraser Thompson, Brenton Wells, Martin Wells, John Edgar, Martin Hensschke and Mark Ingle. The Female event had three teams and each team fought the other two teams. Final results saw the Team of Zoe Tyler, Tamsin Ing, Kate Jamieson, Julie Tynan and Tabitha Dodd in first place. Second place went to Jackie Probert, Catherine Wilkinson, Jess Dubois, Dragana Calic and Lesley McDonald and in third place the team of Suzanne Begley, Julie Boyd, Julie Munchenberg, Amie Gibard and Angla Carapetis. The third place team was competing in their first Team Kumite event and surprised themselves with their showing. The girls did very well over the day and outshone the men in their entry and competiveness.

It was a very well run event, with the 4 ring layout ensuring that there was plenty of room between rings to allow competitors ample room to prepare and compete. The event ran smoothly with plenty of officials. The tiered seating allows for very good spectator viewing. The State Team did the catering and thanks go to the Spiteri, Harford and Andrews families for manning the BBQ and other catering on the day. Around $380 was raised to assist State Team members to attend National Tournaments. Thanks also go to John McDonald, Tamsin Ing and others who provided Photo and Video content from the day.

The official GKR Karate Tournament report can be downloaded here.