Our Carlow Squad - All Medalists!

We were going a day early to catch the sights (and a Guinness or two), so it was an evening in the Temple bar area listening to some traditional folk music, although the Euro in Ireland is like monopoly money and a couple of times I thought I'd bought some property not just a drink!

From a bar in Dublin we sent the kids a text wishing them luck on their trip to Ireland, hehe.

Jason and Lisa had Chris competing and his brother Nick was there with them to watch, Barry and Val were there with Jack, 'Smiffy' was with his boy Connor, Shamsher and Sally were with Jasmine to see Sam and Brenda was there with Shannon.

There were 17 of us in total and looking forward to a good weekend. Paul had suggested that some of them get together and enter the team kata which was to be the first event. So Connor, Chris and Jack got practicing and were soon on the floor. They produced a storming Jion kata full of power, strong combinations and technically superb. They finished in 3rd place enough for a slot in the final four. The Judges announced that only first and second place in the team event would receive medals so the pressure was on, a different kata had to be performed and the three boys earned a superb second place with Passai. Considering they are from three different clubs, had only done minimal practice together and were up against strong opposition their achievement was remarkable and was to set the benchmark for the weekend.

By now Barry had become HKK's official scorer and was scribbling away on his notepad like a demon. Shannon was up next in the Female black belt category and unluckily was drawn out first, as we all know not the ideal position to be drawn out. She performed Passai and to us it looked exceptional, her scores of 6.9, 7.0 and 7.1 didn't seem to do her justice and we feared she was to fall victim to the first performer syndrome. The judges though were spot on and kept their averages from that first total none of the other girls were as good and Shannon's score remained highest qualifying her for the final. Again first out in the final she produced her best ever Ni Sei Shi and won by a convincing margin to rapturous applause from the HKK gang.

Next up was to be the boys and boy were our nerves jangling, Connor was second on and produced as good a kata as I have seen in years by anyone his age. His scores of 8.2, 8.3 and 8.3 were remarkable. Jack had to come straight on and followed with Passai and scored well himself. Next up was Chris with his Passai and he scored one point less than Jack. There was a long wait whilst the rest of the boys went up, and to be honest struggled to cope with the standard set by our three lads. Connor had won the first round by 5 clear points amazing when you consider there were only three judges! Jack had finished equal second with two others, which meant that the unlucky Chris only just missed out on the final four by one point. In the final Connor did a very good Passai, followed by Jack's Wanshu, the other two finalists never got near them and Jack had won by one point, for three boys to come 1st, 2nd and 5th in an international event says a lot for the standard of their katas.

I have been to a lot of competitions and I can't ever remember being that nervous or that proud of a group of kids ever. The good thing was our competitors were finished in time to catch England beat Australia in the rugby.

In the evening we all met up at the Dolmen for a meal where the service was best described as 'different', seven kids on one table and ten adults on the other, although Smithy wasn't sure and sat between the two. Now the kids had their meals went for a swim watched France beat New Zealand played football in the park and came back just in time to see the adults get their food. I had ordered a portion of onion rings and had a plate that must have cleared the French summer harvest of onions for this year! 'Smiffy' nicked my mushrooms and everyone eventually managed to eat themselves merry.

We then went into the bar and met with our hosts Brian and Patsy and a lot of old faces. Unel and Steve Wellington, Josh Johnson and chatted about what karate people chat best about….old times!

A very good Passai saw them progress into the last four in second place despite one judge appearing be more than a little confused, in the final a good kata Jion saw them finish equal 2nd. It was then decided that they would have to do another kata for second place, we were a little taken aback as all the others had been decided on countback which would have guaranteed second place. As it was three team katas to practice in such short time proved a little too much for them and they were awarded third place which in itself was a great achievement, however one or two of our by now very loud group were slightly miffed.

The only person left was Sam and again he was first out, he was in a massive pool of boys and his Passai score left him down in seventh place, luck then changed for us as they decided to have a final of eight and Sam was in the final! One of the boys in his group couldn't remember his own name and did a kata when Sam was called out, amidst a great deal of very funny confusion which ended with Sam telling one of the judges to take his chair so he could compete, Sam did a great Jion which put him in the lead until the last two boys came out, still he ended with a bronze medal and by now everyone in the group was either in tears or screaming. Just as Sam was about to collect his medal I was called over by Patsy and Brian and they explained that they had looked again at the team scores and had decided to award the HKK team the Silver medal they had rightly earned.

Five competitors and ten medals, what more can I say, the kids were a true credit and the commitment of the families to their cause is fantastic, all we could do is say our goodbyes to the squad, we had one more night in Carlow for the very long party that followed and then took a slow drive up the East coast the next day before heading home.

Well done to all the squad members and their families and a big thank you to Patsy and Brian for being such great hosts and giving us a great Irish weekend to remember.

Steve Bell