On June 16th the AKA proudly took away a squad of 8 ladies to represent the association at the HDKI female only competition in Wednesbury. It was an early start but without hesitation the traditional hair braiding began! The ladies had been doing some extra training ready for the competition so we're eager to get going under the watchful eyes of sensei's emma williams ,Keith williams , Dave Galloway and our chief referee Chris Carr.
First up was a surprise automatic entry to lottery team kata (3 people put in a team from different associations on the day!). Although unannounced, The ladies took this in their stride and Bethany Arnold received gold with our old friends from Plymouth and regan Evans achieved bronze place with her team!
Jess cheong then did a fantastic job of obtaining silver in the Kyu grade kata - even more impressive as it was her first competition! The kata progressed with some tough draws and decisions but with everyone proudly performing their kata's to the best they could.
The kumite started with a blazing start from Bethany Arnold who went on to receive her second gold of the day with a very polished and calm performance. Next up saw our young ladies seren and regan Evans and Victoria dominating this category with gold, silver and bronze wins.
Then it was the turn of the senior woman. Again, Nicky porter had a brilliant display of kumite for her first ever comp, showing off what she had learnt in extra training and came away with bronze after having to face Sensei Amber Harrod! Casper Newman took on some competition in her category and obtained bronze. Sensei Amber Harrod showed a great effort in her category and put our final gold in the bag. The final wins were on the raffle which had some impressive prizes and everyone went away with smiles on their faces back to Portsmouth.
Again, the students of the AKA did us immensely proud and we were very impressed with the respect and etiquette that was shown not only on the mat but whilst spectating which was reinforced by some of the referees feedback during the day.
We are already looking forward to next year and are excited to bring away more ladies for ladies day!
