JKS England top the medals in Europe
JKS England had a Squad of 32 competitors travel to Hasselt in Belgium for the 5th JKS Continental Cup over the weekend of 2nd & 3rd September.
Given our second place to Japan at the JKS World Championships in 2016 in Scotland, we did have aspirations to top the medal table at this event, however the success the Squad achieved surpassed expectations by a long way.
In total we achieved 17 Golds, 7 Silver and 9 Bronze medal positions. Obviously there are too many successes to go through them all individually but a special mention must go to 3 people.
Lacie Stembridge and Jake Pointer each came away from the weekend with 3 Gold to their name. Lacie achieved her success in Junior Female Kata 16-17 Yrs and Koten Kata 14-17 Yrs, winning both events in style. She then teamed up with Amelia Stanley and Jessica Maitland to take the Female Team Kata 14 Yrs+. Jake Pointer also came away with 3 Gold. He won the Senior Male Kumite +75Kg and Open weight categories and then teamed up with Sam Coxon and Tom Little to win the Senior Male Team Kumite event. Tom is also worthy of a mention at this point, as he also won the Senior Male Kumite -75Kg event. For those that don’t know, Tom suffered an horrific injury roughly 6 weeks prior to the competition when he snapped his big toe in a training accident. There is a picture on Facebook if you’re brave enough to go looking! This came after suffering and recovering from two ACL reconstructions in recent years. If ever a man deserved success for the sheer dogged determination not to let unfortunate injuries top him, tom is that man!
The vast majority of the Squad performed very well in Belgium with around 80% of them returning with a medal of some description from either team or individual events.
The JKS England Squad have two more International outings in September. A small select team is taking part in the Basel open in Switzerland over the weekend of 16th & 17th September and a larger group are participating in the British Open in Edinburgh over the 30th September and 1st October.
All medallists are listed here:
Gold
Senior Male Kumite +75KG - Jake Pointer
Senior Male Kumite -75KG - Tom Little
Senior Male Kumite Open Weight - Jake Pointer
Senior Koten Kata - Lee Lamb
Veteran Male Kumite 50 Yrs + - Richard Fewkes
Male Kata 16-17 Yrs - Johann Santos
Female Kata 16-17 Yrs - Lacie Stembridge
Koten Kata 14-17 Yrs - Lacie Stembridge
Male Kata 14-15 Yrs - James Harrison
Female Kata 14-15 Yrs - Jessica Maitland
Male Kumite 12-13 Yrs - Henry Pegge
Female Kata 12-13 Yrs - Grace Baron
Female Kata 9-11 Yrs - Maisie Redgrave
Senior Male Team Kumite - Tom Little, Jake Pointer, Sam Coxon, Freddie Grice
Senior Female Team Kata - Lacie Stembridge, Amelia Stanley, Jessica Maitland
Male Team Kata 14-17 Yrs - James Harrison, Rowan Reeve, Sam Jackson
Female Team Kata 10-13 Yrs - Grace Baron, Molly Austin-Hogsden, Maisie Redgrave
Silver
Senior Male Kumite +75KG - Sam Coxon
Senior Male Kata - Lee Lamb
Veteran Male Kata - Sharif Ebrahimi
Female Kumite 16-17 Yrs - Charlotte Haxby
Koten Kata 14-17 Yrs - James Harrison
Male Kata 14-15 Yrs - Rowan Reeve
Male Kata 9-11 Yrs - Zak Thomas-Blackhurst
Senior Male Team Kata - Lee Lamb, Danny Jordan, Matthew Yardy
Bronze
Senior Male Kumite -75KG - Freddie Grice
Male Kumite 16-17 Yrs - David Lister
Female Kumite 16-17 Yrs - Sarah Howarth
Koten Kata 14-17 Yrs - Johann Santos
Female Kumite 12-13 Yrs - Molly Austin-Hogsden
Female Kumite 12-13 Yrs - Grace Baron
Male Team Kumite 14-16 Yrs - Joe Hird, Harry Hardcastle
Female Team Kumite 14-16 Yrs - Sarah Howarth, Charlotte Haxby, Amy Tegetmeier