GKR State Championships September 25 2011
An excellent entry for the GKR South Australian State Championships for 2011. Entries were strong throughout the age groups and grade divisions. It was with anticipation that competitors lined up for the bow in and following the usual formalities competition began in the 4 rings with the junior grades.
In the 7 & under 8-7th kyu section, Josh Kehoe was an early winner, taking out both Kata and Kumite for his division. In the 8 - 9 year 8-7th kyu division, Tyson Nguyen took out Kata with Shaylee Cornwell proving too stron in the Kumite final to take out gold. In 6-4th kyu action, the Kata winner was Vikram Gopakumar with Matthew Thompson taking out kumite. The 10-11 year age group was well supported. In the 8-7th kyu Female kata, Catherine Nguyen took out the gold, with Megan Maxwell the winner in Kumite. In the Male 8-7th kyu event, Jackson Pole was another dual winner, taking out first place for both Kata and Kumite. Eben van Rensberg took out the double as well in the 6-4th kyu combined event. In 12-13 year 8-7th kyu Male division, Max Hill proved too strong for his competitors winning both Kata and Kumite while in the Female division, Courtney Gordon was the Kata winner, with Isabelle Richardson the kumite winner. In the 6-4th kyu Female section, Rani Kulinski took out Kata, with Bailee Phillips the Kumite winner. A very strong 11-13 years Female 3rd kyu+ division saw Angel Marsden take out Kata, with Jessica Lombardi successful in Kumite. Tanis Hillmer took out both kata and kumite in 13-15 year 6-4th kyu competition and Jason Spiteri proved too experienced in the 3rd kyu+ Male event taking out both Kata and Kumite. Mary Kelly was another dual winner in 14-15 year 8-7th kyu Female competition. Margie Hookway and Lucille Lott had a great battle in the 14-15 year 3rd kyu+ female event, with Margie winning the Kata and Lucille winning the Kumite. Rhys Dix was the Kata winner in the 16-17 year 6-4th kyu section, with Callum Boyd taking out the Kumite final. In the 3rd kyu+ section, Daniel Andrew took out both Kata and Kumite.
On to Senior action and it was Steven Halkiw who took out both Kata and kumite in the 21-34 8-7th kyu Male division. James Fowler also was a double winner in the 6-4th kyu competition. Male 3rd kyu+ section saw Andre Langos take out Kata, with Corey Burnside winning Kumite. Kate Jamieson won Kata and Zoe Tyler won Kumite in the 3rd kyu+ female event. Veteran action saw Troy Balmforth take out Kata and Richard Muldcrane Kumite in the 8-7th kyu Male section. The 6-4th kyu Male event was very competitive but Adrian Parker proved just a bit too strong on the day to take out both events. In the Male 3rd kyu+ section, David Boyd won kata and Peter Baker won kumite. In 45-54 7-4th kyu male division, Torsten Hillmer won Kata over George Vulcheff, with George taking out a close Kumite final over Torsten. In the 3rd kyu+ Male section, Steve Tyler was a dual winner. The 3rd kyu+ Female section saw Mary Bambacus take out Kata and Kathryn Brink take out Kumite. In the 55 year+ 6-4th kyu Male Kata, Albert Tuddenham and Brenton Wells had a great tussle with Albert just outpointing Brenton to win Kata. To their dismay, scores were tied after fulltime in Kumite and sudden death was declared. Brenton got the point and was the Kumite winner. This was the last event to finish before the lunch break and both competitors received a great round of applause. Lance Carroll won Kata and Rodney Gray won the Kumite in the 3rd kyu+ Male section.
Team Kata had only a few entries in the Juniors and once again it was the older and more experienced team of Daniel Andrew, Margie Hookway and Jason Spiteri took out first place, with younger team of Rani Kulinski, Sienna Kulinski and Tess ? in second place. During the lunch break, Sensei Joe Van Strijp did a very impressive tile break which by the very nature of the demonstration took a lot longer to set up and clean up afterwards than the actual break.
The Black Belt division was run across two rings with the Male and Female Kata events running alternatively. Alan Gillert took out the Male section from Daniel Tregenza, with Jeremy Thompson third with only the minimum fraction separating them. Lesley McDonald made a welcome return from injury to take out the Female section from Tegan Miller, with Natasha Stone third. The Male Kumite saw Alan Gillert face Jeremy Thompson in the final and after a tight start, Alan got on top and took out the final. Daniel Tregenza took out third place. In the Female final Lesley McDonald took out a close event over Natasha Stone, with Jessica Dubois taking out the third place bout. Congratulations to Alan and Lesley for taking out the double.
Team Kumite completed the day, with several exciting and close fought bouts. In an upset, the Gold in the Female division went to the young team of Georgia Hill, Angel Marsden, Lucille Lott, Kathryn Brink and Margie Hookway over Lesley McDonald, Linda Neighbour, Natasha Stone, Kate Jamieson and Tanya Tregenza. The Male event saw the experienced Team of Corey Burnside, Jeremy Thompson, Alan Gillert, Ian Rollings and Daniel Tregenza too experienced. Second place went to the Burnside Team of Brenton Wells, Justin Hill, Nik McDonald, James Fowler and Bradley Cecchin, with David Boyd, Steve Tyler, Simon Muir, Lance Carroll and Torsten Hillmer in third place. As always, a very popular event with competitors and spectators and a great finale to the day's competition.
Thanks go to all officials and to all involved in the setting up and running of the event. The State Team took care of the catering as usual and raised around $700 towards their end of year travel fund. Thankyou all for your support.
Thanks also go to Drew Andrew, John McDonald and others who provided Photo and Video content from the day.
The official GKR Karate Tournament report can be downloaded here.
