Josh Barnard
Saturday the 13th of April 2013, After months of hard keiko in preparation for the event the day was finally here , myself (Josh Barnard) , Anthony Leong, David Henderson, Alexander Heyworth, Andrew Fisher, Stuart Gibson, and our captain John Fitzgerald lined up amongst 29 other countries from Europe, Africa and the Middle east to start the men’s team championship.
The pools kicked of with really high energy. From the very start each team fought with 100% determination and hunger to win, creating a fantastic atmosphere and really setting the pace for the day. Our pool wasn’t for a while, and as we had already done our warm up keiko earlier on that morning we had a great opportunity to watch and study possible future opponents particularly France, who we would have to face once we got out of our pool.
Great Britain Vs Ukraine
Leong M Vs Konstantinov
Henderson K vs Stryzhychenko
Fisher MD vs Kuzminsky
Fitzgerald vs Kusnetsov
Gibbo M M vs Dobrovolsky
Great Britain Vs South Afric a
Leong M Vs Coetzer
Henderson vs XX
Fisher vs Jacques
Fitzgerald vs XX
Gibbo M M vs Witbooi
After a great performance from all the players and particularly from Anthony Leong who on his first time selected for the EKC took successful men uchi in both his matches. Team GB won their pool, and went on to face France in the 2nd round. At this point Coach (Malcolm Goodwin Sensei) strategically decided to change the team order and also swapped two of the players, giving Alex Heyworth and myself a shot to show what we could do against France, which Alex and I much appreciated and as it was also my first time to be selected for EKC I was particularly pleased and honoured that I was played in such an important match.
Great Britain Vs France
Heyworth Vs K K Ito
Gibson Vs K K Pons
Fisher Vs Nakabayashi
Barnard vs M M Bertout
Fitzgerald vs K D Montessions
The French national team was a very fierce opponent, and although we put up a good fight unfortunately we did not succeed. The French team changed their team order, also and then kept that order all the way to the end, eventually winning the competition, which I think showed what a serious threat team GB was to France at that point and had they not treated us as such the competition may have seen a different result.
Sunday the 14th of April 2013
Although this was an individual tournament, team spirit was still very high and there was a real sense of support for our fellow team mates. With most of us getting out of our pools and Stuart Gibson and Andrew Fisher going very far into the competition, the men’s individual championships certainly brought a much better result for team GB than the previous day.
Individual Pools
1st Round
Heyworth. vs K Gromul
Heyworth MM vs Sommer
Leong M vs Rothander
Leong KK vs Koreas
Barnard K vs Barn
Barnard MM vs Bbdella
Fisher KK vs Ogorodnikov
Fisher vs Stojanovic
Gibson MM vs Khomeriki
Gibson MM vs Matavelie
2nd Round
Gibson MM vs Lorene
Fisher I vs Boven
Leong K I vs Lipinkski
Barnard vs M Giannetto
3rd round
Fisher K vs Monlozou
Gibson MK vs Mandai.
Leong vs MM Arregui Martin
4th round
Fisher KD vs Konstantinov
Gibson M I vs Ito
Quarter finals
Gibson K vs KK Nakabayashi
Fisher D I vs Szegafi
Semi final
Fisher vs M Nakabayashi
Stuart Gibson made it to the quarter finals, not only beating the Georgian number one Davit Khomeriki but also taking out the former European kendo champion Fabrizio Mandia from Italy with a fantastic ai kote men followed soon after by debana kote, Stuart also beat Kei Ito from France and went on to receive a well deserved fighting spirit award. Andrew Fisher made it to the semi finals, with lots of exciting shiai and amazing ippon throughout the day, Andrew’s matches really were a great watch. Andrew eventually lost in a really close match to Nakabayashi from France, and took a 3rd place medal making his team mates and his Country very proud.
Juliette Li Wan Po
The 2013 EKC took place in Berlin from the 12th to the 14th of April. The whole team had flown in by the 10th so as to have ample time to recover from travelling and allowing for a brief but intense practice the day before the start of the competition. On Friday the 10th of April, after an opening ceremony fuelled with German efficiency, the competition started with the Junior events. In the afternoon was the Ladies’ team competition. Great Britain had managed to enter a team of three women: Jenni Wilding, Jenny Nash and myself. Unfortunately, due to extenuating circumstances, Jenni Wilding was unable to attend the competition and the Ladies GB team had to forfeit their place.
There was still the Women’s Individual event, but this was only on the Sunday which made for a tedious wait for us two GB ladies. Sunday finally arrived and it turned out that I was in one of the first four matches to kick start the Ladies’ Individual championship, which made it even more nerve racking for me. It was pools of three with only the top person going through to the knock out stages. In my pool was the German Safiyah Fadai and the Ukrainian Ruslana Gogol.
The first match was against Fadai whom I had already encountered at the 4 Nations earlier this year and knew was a very strong opponent. It was a very difficult match for me but I managed to hold on for over half the allocated time of 4 minutes, while trying to attack when opportunity presented itself. Unfortunately, Fadai’s experience and greater quality of kendo showed through and she scored her first point by a
quick Men cut. The second point came soon after with another Men cut to which Fadai won the match.
The second match of the pool was Fadai against Gogol which Fadai won quickly.
The third match was Gogol against myself. This time there was less of a disparity in the level of kendo between the two of us. Several attacks were made by both sides before I eventually managed to score Kote. Following that I tried hard to get the second point while being careful not to let Gogol equalize, however time ran out and I had to settle on winning the match 1-0. It would be good to note that Fadai ended up winning the Ladies’ Individual
championship.
A short while after, it was Jenny Nash’s turn to fight for GB. Her pool consisted of the Finn Saara Poyhonen and the Latvian Agnese Steinberga. The first match of the pool was Jenny against Poyhonen. Jenny demonstrated a
good attacking spirit from the start of her match but was unfortunate to get a han soku by stepping out of the shiai-jo during one of these attacks. It was a difficult shiai as the two were evenly matched and at the end the match ended hikiwake. The second match was Poyhonen against Steinberga which Poyhonen won by two points. With the knowledge that she had to win by two points to stand a chance to get out of her pool, Jenny faced Steinberga in the third match. Her response was a very forwards/ attacking approach. At the start, Jenny made several attempts at kote but eventually it was a Men cut which scored. Jenny tried to get the second point but the match ended 1-0 to Jenny who despite her good efforts and having not lost a single point went out of the competition.
Overall, despite being brief, the GB Ladies gained valuable experience and gave a good performance judging that it was our first major international competition. There is a lot of hope that next year, GB will be able to field a full Ladies’ team. Finally, we thank the GB Coach Goodwin Sensei and the GB Manager Starr Sensei for all their advice and support. We appreciate that this must not have been an easy task to coordinate the Ladies as well as the Men’s training sessions and events and are grateful for all their efforts.
Table of Results
