2005 ETKF European Championships

The 2005 ETKF European Championships were held in Malta on 4th and 5th June 2005.    21 Countries attended, and among them was the four man England team of John Lowe, Jason Hitchings, Martin Cracknell and Westwood's Kevin Paskins.

TEAM KUMITE     

England faced Ukraine in the first round. First man up was Martin Cracknell, he faced an aggressive fighter and at one point, momentarily stepped out of the area to concede Jogai (two points).

Neither fighter was able to score Wazari or Ippon, and when the match finished Ukraine had a slender two point lead. The photo to the right, shows Martins Maegeri connecting with his opponent's arm.

Next up for England was John Lowe. He and his Ukrainian adversary were evenly matched and the match went to full time with neither competitor able to create a decisive opening.                           Below, John's Ushirogeri falls short.                

The last fighter up for England was Jason Hitchings. Jason knew the team were down by two points, and went on the offensive.              Although he managed to put his opponent under a lot of pressure, he too was unable to score. At one point he managed to catch the Ukrainian's Ura mawashigeri, sweep and follow up, but the referee called 'Yamae' a bit too sharpish, and there was no score.           Jason's sweep is pictured below. 

Ukraine won the match by the Jogai and went on to become European Champions, beating Poland and Romania along the way.

INDIVIDUAL KATA

Kevin performed Gojushiho sho. It was a good kata, but he finished slightly behind his starting position. This is severely penalised in international competition, and although, after a judges meeting he was given a white flag, indicating no penalties, two of the judges clearly marked him down by 0.2 or 0.3. There was no coming back from that.                              Kevin is pictured below.

I                                            INDIVIDUAL KUMITE

     First round of the Individual Kumite saw Jason up against a giant of a man from Slovenia. Undeterred, he took the fight to his opponent and but for a couple of, shall we say, surprising decisions he may well have won.  Firstly, the Slovenian scored with a very debatable ushirogeri, Jason then replied with a gyakuzuki which was at first awarded by the referee, and then retracted. He did manage to equal the score with another gyakuzuki, but the Slovenian was then awarded a maegeri to take the match.

                                  Jason's, wazari that never was, is pictured below.

                  More pictures below