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22nd European Kendo Championships 2007 - Helsinki, Finland - Men’s Team Report

For several months we had been preparing for these championships, at squad training as well as in our private dojos. After hours of kakarigeiko, uchikomi and shiai geiko, we found ourselves at Heathrow Airport on a cold March morning. After a few hours on the plane we arrived at possibly the coldest country I have ever set foot upon, frankly it was freezing. We all jumped in taxis and made our way to the hotel, where we were reunited with the colossus that is Gibbo - sight for sore eyes. After a short meeting we all went for an early night ready for the early start the next day.

For anyone who doesn’t know what happens at an EKC the first order of each day is the warm up. This usually happens before the 9am opening ceremony, so it’s an early start in a hall that is big enough for about 7 teams to warm up in, however, there are over 30 teams at the championships, all wanting to get a space. Thus we begun the day with a race for space in the practise hall, but we managed to squeeze in and got in a good warm up.

The first day of the championships featured the ladies teams, junior’s teams and individuals. You’ll find more about how the girls did in their report, so I shall concentrate mainly on the juniors in this one. First was the team matches, our juniors were Oscar Carter, Ross Thompson and Kyle Brogan. Tragically, the boys were in probably the most difficult of all the pools - with Italy and Germany. They battled hard, and all of them put in performances to be proud of, but were unfortunately defeated by both of the more experienced teams. Therefore they were out of the competition.

Next, came the Juniors Individuals, again seeing unlucky draws in the pools. Oscar and Ross were both in larger pools of 4, with still only 2 going through, and although fighting hard unluckily didn’t make it past this stage. Kyle found himself in another tough pool also, with Guido Appiani from the ever-strong Italian team, and last year’s champion Koichi Nakabayashi from France. Although against the odds, and despite the nerves, Kyle put in a cracking performance and came through his pool in 2nd place, earning him a place in the knockout tournament. His glory was unfortunately short lived, however, as he found himself against another experienced French player, Yannis Hachouf, who gained victory over Kyle, knocking him out of the tournament.

This was the end of the day for the junior’s, and indeed the competition. This was the first year that Great Britain had submitted a full junior team to the European Championships, and it was clearly a great success. Maybe not with regard to physical results, but in my opinion something far more important. The juniors, not just the lads that came to Helsinki, but all across the UK, are (in my opinion) the most important kendoka in the country. They are the future team members, the future champions, the future sensei - the future of British kendo, and we need to expose them to kendo of their European and indeed International counterparts.

Anyway, back on topic, the following day saw the ‘Main Event’ - The men’s teams. Also the ladies individuals, which, as with the ladies teams, saw a tremendous effort from the girls, but again, you’ll read all about that in their report. This was the day all the blood, sweat and tears of the past year had been for. Our team was - myself, Stuart ‘Gibbo’ Gibson, Mark Halls, Max Davies, Alan Thompson, Theo Rutter and Phil Wilson. We were all ready for this year and we had a point to prove. Last year we won the bronze medal, and we had to prove that we can maintain the standard. The draw had been kind to us, and although in the only pool of 4 teams (instead of 3) our opposition was South Africa, Greece and Ireland. Looking sharp, we bet all of them convincingly and progressed straight through to the knockout tournament.

We knew at this stage it was only 4 matches to the gold, and our first round was against Lithuania. It would have been easy to slip into complacency with this draw, but we knew there is no such thing as an easy match at this level. The Lithuanian team fought with true passion, and their kendo has clearly benefited from the teaching of their coach (a former coach of the GB team). However, we were determined and managed to prevail, with all of the British team members fighting with spirit and vigour.

Next saw our old rivals, Sweden. We beat them last year and they were out for revenge. As Senpo, I managed to kick things off with a Men, then Kote 2-0 victory. However, then Max and Phil were unfortunately defeated by 2-0 each. This meant the match stood at 2-1 to Sweden, with two matches to go. The pressure was on Mark. Lucky for us, Mark is probably the best kendoka I have ever known at coping with this kind of pressure - despite being the team’s youngest player. He did what we all knew he could and won his match with 2 clear points. The match was all square.

It all rested with both teams’ last man. In our case the mighty Gibbo, and the well known Jun Yamazaki from the Swedes. After a cliffhanging 5 minutes the whistle blew with no score… At this stage that can only mean one thing - Daihyou-sen, or representative match. Without time for a break Gibbo was back on the shiai-jo, against Edde Johansen. Though unperturbed, Gibbo put on a great show and seized victory with an inspiring hiki-dou.

We were in the semi-finals and this time it was last year’s champions France. We knew we were close, and that shiny gold medal was less than half an hour away. We were going to be the first British Team to win gold since the 1st EKC in 1974. However, we were under no illusion it was going to be a tough match.

I started us off, against Guillaume Sicart - last year’s individual champion. I knew this was going to take everything I had, and he was probably the toughest player I have fought in a shiai like this since we fought the Koreans at the Worlds. I took a deep breath and stepped onto the shiai jo, knowing that I had to set the pace. I stood up from sonkyo and shouted at him as loud as I could. I don’t really know what happened next but it involved me scoring men - get in! I then, admittedly, got a bit cocky and lost a point to Sicart’s suriage waza. I knew it was crunch time. I stood up to him and fought confidently and eventually scored another men ippon. I had won. This had set the pace we needed.

Max was next on and fought harder than ever before, as did Phil. Unfortunately to no avail against the incredibly experienced Frenchmen. This left Mark needing to win, in order to get us through to the final, but luck was against us and after a long tough match we were beaten.

Finally Gibbo toed the line. Although all hope of victory had slipped away, this was a matter of pride. Gibbo did the country proud beating his opponent convincingly with 2 points.

And so we were out. We wanted the gold, and we wanted it bad, but the day was not ours. However, there was no room for disappointment. We had achieved the most important thing of all. We had proved to Europe that last year was no fluke, and that Great Britain deserves respect as country with some of the best kendo in the continent. The guys on the team fought hard for their country and for the members of the BKA, and I am exceptionally proud of them, and even more so to be one of them.

The following day brought the men’s individuals. This was another great day for British Kendo as almost all of the British representatives got through their pools. With Myself, Alan and Mark reaching the top 32 and Gibbo reaching the best 8. There were several highlights of the day including Mark scoring a superb example of men-kaeshi-dou against Christian Fillipi of the Italian team, Alan gallantly locking horns with Yonnet of the French team (last year’s silver medalist) and Theo fighting almost every Jodan player in the taikai. And not forgetting Mr. Gibson receiving a fighting spirit award for his inspirational performance throughout the day.

This saw the close of the championships. Another great year for the great team that fought for Great Britain - if I could fit the word ‘great’ in that sentence once more I would have! This really was a fantastic achievement, from a team that saw many ‘firsts’ this time round. For Alan, Theo and Phil this was their first trip to the European Championships as representatives of Britain. Though despite this, they all performed as though they had been there many times before. It was of course the first European Championships for the British Team under the guidance of Matsumoto Sensei, who I would like to thank, along with Matsuda Sensei, on behalf of the team, for all of their advice and support throughout the Championships and the preparations for it. And for myself, this has been the first event with the British Team for me where I have had the honour and privilege to be the Men’s Team Captain, which leads me to thank the team members for supporting me and coping with my inexperience in this role. Also it was the first time we have had a team physiotherapist, Mr. Nigel Kettle, who certainly educated us to the benefits of his invaluable expertise.

On behalf of the men’s team, I would like to also thank the ladies and juniors teams for all of their support, help and ‘cheering-on’, it truly was invaluable! Lastly, and most importantly, I would like to greatly thank all of the people who have given up their time and money to attend squad training over the past year and provided the team with the support and hard training that continues to lead us to success.

The next European Kendo Championships will be held in Hungary in the year 2010. But before then we have the big one, yes its upon us again, the World Kendo Championships is to be held next year and that is now what the squad will be working towards. Anyone know what the currency is in Brazil?...

Andrew Fisher

22nd EKC Team GB

Men's Team Captain