Competition is only a small part of Shotokan Karate but it is an excellent proving ground for those interested in competing. Anyone who is willing to stand up and be compared to your fellow student is a winner, to then have your faults scrutinised by referees and judges is a daunting prospect.

On Saturday 20 February 14 members of JKA Orkney travelled to Dunfermline for the Scottish Championships on the Sunday. With 4 juniors competing along with 8 adults and Kenny Roy and Drew Kennedy taking on referee and corner judge duties.

With the competition starting at 9.30am and finishing at 5.15pm, it is a long day for competitors which can vary from only a few minutes on the floor for those put out in early rounds to about 30 minutes on the floor for those who get to the final rounds. The rest of the time is spent cheering on team mates and warming up for events.

Shotokan Karate competitions involve two parts rather than just the fighting aspect, where they have kumite (free sparring) and also perform Kata (a set form of movements which contain basic and more advanced techniques) which are performed on your own.

The early part of the day started with the juniors with Simon Carmichael going the right way about retaining his kata title from last year until he performed the wrong kata 'excellently' and was knocked out of the kata competition. He regained his composure to take third in the junior kumite competition. Andrew MacDonald was in an almost impossible age group being one of the smallest in the 13-15 age group which contained many black belts. He did well in his free sparring 'kumite' against a young lad who was a head and shoulders above him and bravely took a few knocks before being defeated on points.

It was a turnaround for the Carmichael brothers this year as Sandy did an excellent job to take the junior kata and kumite titles as well as win a special award for best junior performance. James Wylie was defeated before reaching the trophies but did well in his first national competition. Max Challoner, who is also an ex-Orkney junior, also did very well to get in the trophies in the junior kata competition.

Kenny was having his first go at refereeing at national level with many of the junior competitions and took to it like 'a duck to water' impressing his senior instructors with his knowledge and fair judgement.

Moving on the the ladies performance where Sue Struthers and Inga Antonio were competing in the kata competition which saw them take third and 1st place respectively. Only Inga was competing in the kumite and did some excellent work to come away with her 2nd 1st place win of the day.

The senior male competition had a larger than normal field with a few new associations adding faces that were an unknown quantity. The lads did very well and as we got to the final rounds were were seeing a lot more Orkney v Orkney bouts in the kumite and kata.

Mark Reeves enjoyed his competition in the lower grades but was also defeated before reaching the trophy table.

The Orkney trio of Erlend Allen, Andrew Reid and Yan Shearer did well as a team in both kata and kumite with 2nd and 3rd place wins respectively. Andrew Hamilton, Keith Moar and Magnus Garson (who now lives in Edinburgh) were doing well in the team kumite until Magnus had his nose broken and was taken off for medical attention (having won his fight). Andrew and Keith continued as a 2 man team which meant they had to win both their fights to get through to the final which they did, only being beaten by the final winners of the competition.

In the individual mens kumite final Andrew Hamilton was again matched with European team-mate David Bettley which saw their roles reversed with Andrew this time taking victory.

All students from Orkney put on their best performance on the day and came away with a very successful medal haul. We then drove up to Inverness for an overnight stay and a celebratory meal before leaving for Orkney on Monday morning in glorious sunshine.

Andrew Hamilton now goes on to compete in the European championships in April alongside Magnus Garson and his challenger for both Kata and Kumite titles David Bettley.

Congratulations go to all students for taking part and their respective wins. Now its back to daily training for our forthcoming grading.

by Drew Kennedy