BSK TOURNAMENT TEAM 2022 RESULTS

After the pandemic, 2022 was the first full year back on the tournament mats for the squad. After such a long break, the team were excited and ready to return. The team had not been dormant since March 2020, training at home thanks to Sensei Paul’s relentless efforts with the online training and taking every opportunity to compete in the online competitions that became popular during those difficult times. We started off in February at Dokan in Tyneside. Morgan took a gold and our girls teams took a silver in kumite and a bronze in kata (Millie, Isabelle, Holly Lucy), Holly and Morgan also took silver medals. At AMA International in March Francesca achieved a gold and a silver, followed by SSKA where Sally, Amanda, Harvey, Holly all took gold medals. Silver for Martin, Tyler, Isabelle, Victoria, Morgan and Isabelle. EKA came next again in March, with Tyler achieving 2 golds, along with Victoria and Harvey also winning their events, silver for Darcey, Morgan and Amanda. The girls team Lucy Holly and Isabelle took the gold in teams, and Sally gained a silver in her team event. Kanzen and the GB Open were harder international events. We still manged brilliant results, including triple gold for Morgan at Kanzen, and bronzes in 2 team kumite events. Victoria took a silver along with Lucy competing for team GBIE. We continued into May with the AMA Nationals, a host of medals including 2 more golds for Morgan, gold for Esme and silvers from James, and Millie. The September GB Open event was an official European Tour, so we knew this one would be hard. James won gold in kata and Tyler won gold in kumite, outstanding results! Victoria and Morgan picked up silver medals. Great results amongst other bronzes for the team. Again, in September we were at AMA, another amazing triple gold for Morgan, Gold for Harvey, Francesca, Holly and 3 more golds in team kumite (Tyler, James, Harvey, Ethen, Morgan, Millie, Lucy Esme). Manchester, although close to home was a big, tough competition. The best of the best were there preparing for the Euros, Victoria took a gold and the girls team Millie Francesca and Lucy after a truly hard fight against Kanzen in the final took a well-deserved silver. In October we travelled up to Scotland for an event we had not done before. A small squad attended but managed to achieve 4 golds, Isabelle came storming through with 2 and Morgan and Holly also won their categories. Silvers were won by Millie (2) and Amanda. At this event Morgan and Isabelle won Competitor of the Day in their age group which was a fabulous achievement. A final UK comp of the year saw the girls team Lucy Holly and Isabelle take gold in team kumite at AKA In Birmingham. In June, our squad members trialled for the EKA England team, to compete in the European Championships in Italy in November. Holly, Tyler, James, Morgan, Francesca, Harvey, Ethan, Lucy, Amanda, Martin, Sally, Millie, Charlotte, Isabelle were all successfully selected for the team. Very sadly 3 were unable to attend the event, who we sadly missed in Florence. For our team it was a truly amazing experience of a lifetime. Competing on another level altogether, the teenagers in particularly faced categories of up to 80 competitors in events from all over Europe, there were over 2000 competitors taking part over 4 days. Every single Black Scorpion Student did their team and country proud, we were amazed and unbelievably proud to have medal winners in this event: James Eden European Kata Champion, Tyler Cooper European Kumite Champion and Kata Silver Medalist, Holly McDonald and Sally Clark European Kumite Bronze Medallists, Sally and Amanda European Team Kumite Bronze medallists. So what for 2023? We start the year with the EKA Federation event in January, followed by the first official UK Open in London in February, where our full team selected for the EKA England team will be up against the best in Europe yet again. Sensei Paul, and senior squad coaches Martin, Sally and Amanda would like to reiterate that the door to competing at BSK is always open. We want to build our team from the grass roots, you don’t need to be a black belt to start training with the team. All that’s needed is commitment and hard work. If anyone is interested in joining the squad, please contact Sensei Amanda for more information.