Saturday the 22nd of June saw the annual JKA England National Championships at the K2 Sports Centre in Crawley. Competitors from all over the country gathered to pit their kata and kumite skills against one another.

It's been a while since JKA Orpington have attended a tournement as a club but we had a fantastic turnout particuarly from many of our junior members, most of whom had never previously competed.

There's an old saying, "It's not the winning, it's the taking part that's important" and in this instance it couldn't be more accurate. Karate competitions are nervy affairs at the best of times but when you've never taken part in one before, not knowing what to expect, where to go and what to do all compound the tension. We're extremely pleased to report that all of our students conducted themselves impeccably and did the club proud.

The following students took part in this year's event:

Jonathan Thompson (8th Kyu), James Sparks (7th Kyu), Bertie Barnard (6th Kyu), Nadja Wright (5th Kyu), Callie Pinkerton (5th Kyu), Ishan Burkhara (5th Kyu), Jacob Dowling (3rd Kyu), James Wong (1st Kyu), Matt Spanswick (2nd Dan), Dave Shilling (1st Dan), Steve Davies (2nd Dan).

We took home medals in the following catagories:

Boys Individual Kata 10-12 years - 2nd place - 'James Wong'

Boys Individual Kumite 13-15 years - 3rd place - 'Jacob Dowling'

Male Senior Individual Kumite 45+ years - 1st Place - 'Steve Davies'

Congratulations to everyone who took part!