GKR State Championships September 26 2010

A slightly larger entry of students participated in the 2010 State Championships, with numbers strong in several divisions. As usual, the venue was set up with 4 rings with plenty of area around each ring for competitors and supporters. 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 Rory Curtis with Elke Koehn in second place. In Kumite, Max Vulcheff won the final from Rory Curtis, with Shakaya Hembury in third place. In the 7yrs & under 6-4th Kyu Combined division, it was Tushr Muralidharan winning the Kata, from Matthew Thomsom, with Tara Jeromel third and Vikram Gopakumar just a fraction behind in fourth place. In Kumite, Tushr took the points over Matthew in the battle for the Gold, and Tatr proved  a bit too strong to take third place over Vikram. In the 8 - 9 year 8-7th kyu Combined section, Kata was won by Sienna Kulinski, Taylah Chadwick was second, with Darcy Munchenberg third. The Kumite event was close with Darcy winning the final from Sienna, with Justin Richardson taking out third place. In the 6-4th kyu section, Eben Vanrensburg won Kata, Jordan Haffner was second, and Christina Akele was third. Jordan won Kumite final from Eben, with Christina third. The 10 - 11 year 8-7th kyu Male Kata was won by Michael Yick, Cameron Henley- Fridmanis was second, with Abdul Toj in third place. In Kumite, Michael won the final from Abdul Toj, with Aaron Roy taking out the third place bout. The Kata winner for the 8-7th kyu Female event was Rani Kulinski, second was Krystina Dianos, with Isabelle Richardson- Drew in third place. Rani and Krystina had a close bout in the final, with Rani taking out the event. Isabelle was third. The 10-11 years 6-3rd Kyu Female division had some of the top Junior girls competing and the standard was high. In Kata, Jessica Lombardi was first, Stephanie Antolis second and Jasmine Harford third. The Kumite was fiercely competed, with Jasmine just outpointing Kate Pettman, while Stephanie was too strong on the day beating Demi Harford for third place. The Kata winner in the 12-13 years 6-4th Kyu Female was Lucille Lott with Anna Freer second. In Kumite, Lucille was too experienced for Anna to win the final. Male 12-15 yrs 6th-4th Kyu Kata was won by Jalen Croxton, from Aaron Hittman, with Callum Boyd in third place. In Kumite, Callum won the final over Jalen, while Daniel Field took out the third place bout over Aaron. In 14-17 yrs 8-7th Kyu Male Kata, first place went to Ben Tynan, with Brandon Dodd second. Kumite was keenly fought with Brandon taking the points over Ben for the Gold, with Jordan Hembury in third place. The Kata winner in the 14-15 yrs 8-7th Kyu Female event was Madee White, Hayley Waters was second, with Hope Edwards in third place. Hope won the Kumite final from Hayley. 14-15 yrs 6-4th Kyu Female kata was won by Margie Hookway with Ashlee Langkilde second. In a close bout, Margie took the points over Ashlee to win the Kumite. The 14-17 yrs 3rd Kyu & above Male event saw the two State Team representatives share the spoils. Jondalar Grenfell-Sexton won the Kata from Daniel Andrew, while in Kumite, Daniel's extra reach enabled him to take the points over Jondalar. For the first time in several years, there was a Junior Black Belt Open event and the quality of the three participants was exceptional. In Kata, Angel Marsden was first, Jason Spiteri second, with Tegan Miller third. Jason won the sparring from Tegan, with Angel in third place. 

Seniors had a bigger entry than Round 2 and there was some keen competition within the divisions. In 21-34 yrs 8-7th Kyu Male section, the Kata winner was Bradley Cecchin, Stephen Loveridge was second and David Cecchin was third. In Sparring, head Judge Shane Bennett had his work cut out, as the bouts were all fiercely competed. David Cecchin took out the final from Steven Halkiw to take the Gold, while Bradley Cecchin took out third place. 18-34 yrs 6-4th Kyu Male Kata was won by Russell Fraser with Paul Meaker second. In Kumite, Russell again took the event over Paul in a close bout. In the Female section of this division, Angela Johnston won the Kata from Kirsty Webb, with Rhiannon Ralph third. In Kumite, Rhiannon proved too feisty for Angela to win the title, with Kirsty third. 18-34 yrs 3rd Kyu & above Male was a good event with several yop competitors. Kata was won by Nathaniel Drabsch, Mark Ingle was second, and Nik McDonald took out third place. In Kumite, Nik outpointed Corey Burnside to win the event, with Mark winning the battle for third place. The 18-34 yrs 3rd Kyu & above Female section had been hit by injury but the competitors demonstrated high quality Kata with Alex Mills winning from Zoe Tyler. In Kumite, Jackie Probert narrowly won the event over Alex in a tight bout.

The Veteran competition saw some quite high quality competition. In Veteran (35-44 yrs) 8-7th Kyu Male Kata, Adrian Parker was first, with Anthony Elliot second. Kumite action saw the results reversed, with Anthony winning the event over Adrian. Veteran (35-44 yrs) 6-4th Kyu Male Kata was won by Paul Jeromel, from Craig Johnston, with Chris Munchenberg in third place. Kumite was tight, with Chris taking out the final from David Boyd, with Anton Van Rensberg winning the bout for third place. In the Veteran (35-44 yrs) 6th-4th Female Kata event, Julie Munchenberg took first place, from Linda Donnellan, with Joanne Corino in third place. Kumite was keenly contested with Linda winning the final from Julie, with Julie Boyd third. Veteran (35-44 yrs) 3rd Kyu & above Male Kata was won by Daniel Tregenza, Sean Hutton was second and Kevin Boyd took out third place. The Kumite competition was a bit closer than expected with Sean taking Daniel to extra time, but Daniel took the point to win the event. The third place bout was also closely fought with David Thornton winning over Kevin Boyd. Veteran (35-44 yrs) 3rd Kyu & above Female Kata was won by Tanya Tregenza, with Tamsin Ing in second place. A close fought final saw Tamsin take the points and the title from Tanya. Senior Veteran (45 yrs plus) 6-4th Kyu Male Kata saw Steve Tyler take out the event from Ron White, with George Vulcheff winning a three way tie to take out third place. In Kumite, Ron won the final from Steve, with Brenton Wells taking out the third place bout. The Senior Veteran (45 yrs plus) 3rd Kyu & above Female Kata winner was Julie Tynan, Chris McDonald was second and Mary Bambacus was third. In Kumite, a closely fought bout between Julie and Chris went point for point, but it was Julie who took out the event from Chris. The old blokes decided to referee or take photos instead of competing - perhaps a wise choice.

The final events before lunch were the Junior and Senior Syncronised Kata. There were seven teams entered in juniors, comprising a number of experienced competitors but also some new teams competing for the first time. Not surprising, there was a tie for first and after a second form, the Modbury Team of Daniel Andrew, Margie Hookway and Jason Spiteri came first, Mt Barker represented by Demi Harford, Lucille Lott and Jasmine Harford was second and Sienna Kulinski, Rani Kulinski and Krystina Dianos representing Burnside were third. The Senior Male competition was won by Chris Ford, Daniel Andrew and Kevin Boyd, with Nick McDonald, Nathaniel Grabsch and Mark Ingle in second place. Tamsin Ing, Alex Mills and Jessica Dubois won the female event, with Linda Donnellan, Zoe Tyler and Rhiannon Ralph second.

The Black Belt Open events were scheduled in the one ring, with Kata first. The girls were up first, and it was Lesley McDonald who took the judges decision for first place. Julie Tynan and Jessica Dubois tied for second place and after performing a second, different Kata, it was Jess in second and Julie third. Dragana Calic was fourth. Only three competitors is the Male event and it was Daniel Tregenza placed first, Beau Beaumont second and Ian Rollings third. Female Kumite was next, with four evenly matched competitors. In the first bout, Dragana Calic proved too strong for Jess to advance to the final. The other bout saw Julie took the points over Lesley to advance to also advance to the final. Lesley and Jess had a close bout for third place with Lesley taking out the bout and he medal. The final between Julie and Dragana swayed one way and then the other as the early lead by Julie was gradually cut back by Dragana until the scores were tied at 2.5 points each. A strong reverse punch saw Dragana take the point and the title. With some competitors missing due to injury, there were only three competitors in the Male Kumite. First up, Ian took on Beau and in a very entertaining bout, highlighted by several high kicks, it was Beau who took the points to go on and face Daniel. It was a bout of the master against the apprentice as Daniel imposed himself on the bout and swept beau several times to comfortably take out the bout and the Title. 

As always, it was the Male and Female Teams Event that ended the day. The ladies were on first and the first bout saw the higher graded and more experienced team of Jess Dubois, Zoe Tyler, Tamsin Ing, Lesley McDonald and Jackie Probert narrowly defeat the R23 girls Team of Dragana Calic, Julie Boyd, Julie Tynan, Julie Munchenberg and Beckie Weldrake. The winners took on the Elizabeth Ninjas represented by Lauren Degabrielle, Rhiannon Ralph, Tanya Tregenza, Linda Donnellan and Alex Mills, and the Ninjas showed they had all the tricks in taking out the final. With several regulars missing, there were only two Male teams this time. Team Jungle, represented by Daniel Tregenza, Ian Rollings, Nik McDonald, Corey Burnside and Beau Beaumont, proved too strong for Brenton Wells, Mark Ingle, John Edgar, Nathaniel Grabsch and Anthony Elliot representing Team Burnside, in an entertaining finale to the day.

Well done to Shane Bennett and Jeremy Thompson on their refereeing of all the Open and Team Kumite, with assistance from Kirsty Kane and Gordon Kuckhahn for Kata. Special thanks also to all those people who officiated, either in the ring or table on the day, to ensure a smoothly run Tournament that finished in a timely manner. Thanks also to the Spiteri, Andrew, Harford and Croxton families and others who assisted with the catering.

As always, thanks to John McDonald, Tamsin Ing and others who contributed photos and video for the report.

The official GKR Karate Tournament report can be downloaded here.