What a fantastic weekend was had by the A.I.M.A.A Squad attending the W.U.M.A European Championships in Worcester, England. The squad had been preparing for this event for some time now, and where joined by Mr Paul Healy of A.I.M.A.A Ireland, who was taking part in his first ever UK event in the open tournament circuit.

Master Kirkwood headed the squad at the event and competed in patterns, point sparring - 80kg and the Masters section within the event. The squad were sad that on this occasion Mr John Kirkwood Jnr could not compete due to a illness and was under strict medical orders to rest. However he did come along to support his father and his friend Mr Healy and the squad members.

The WUMA European Championships drew competitors from Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, England, Scotland and more. It draws from all types of martial artists, from kung fu, karate, kickboxing, Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai, as well as MMA competitors. The event had patterns, team patterns, weapons, creative teams, self defence teams, point sparring, continuous sparring, full contact and grappling. As usual the event was thrilling to take part in and thrilling to watch!

The A.I.M.A.A Squad found themselves up against different styles of Korean martial arts, such as Tang San Do and Korean Karate. Our Squad also found themselves up against competitors from the TAGB, ITF and some freestyle associations.  Within the Adult patterns Master Kirkwood, Lisa Aitken and Mr Paul Healy were up against competitors from the ITF and TAGB. Master Kirkwood preformed and executed his pattern with precision and power and won the Title and Gold for A.I.M.A.A.  Mr Paul Healy and Miss Lisa Aitken were also within this division and performed their patterns excellently, however on this occasion both were unsuccessful in gaining a place in this division.

The junior patterns saw Kirsty Gough, Kara Gough, Tammy Sutherland and Rachel Miller take part in this event. This division was very big with many competitors from different associations. The girls all did exceptionally well in this division, however Kirsty Gough blew the competition away and took the Title and Gold in patterns.

Within the team patterns we had 2 teams entered, our first team was Kirsty Gough, Lisa Miller and Paul Healy, whilst the second team entered was Kara Gough, Rachel Miller and Tammy Sutherland. The team division combined weapon teams, musical and traditional teams, junior and senior together. Our adult team did exceptionally well however were piped to the post in getting placed, whilst our junior team did well and managed to gain a third place in this hard and large division.

By now the point sparring had started and out junior A.I.M.A.A squad members found themselves competing in their height divisions against some serious opponents. Our first competitor on the mats was Kara Gough, who fought hard and won a 2nd place in her division. At the same time we had young Rachel Miller competing on the next area. Rachel was awesome and fought a very hard and experienced opponent, although she missed out on the final she won a 2nd place and did Master Kirkwood and the squad proud.

We also had Tammy Sutherland and Kirsty Gough up next, both girls fought some hard opponents and at one point had to fight each other. The squad was successful again in the points sparring as Kirsty took the 2nd place and Tammy took the 3rd place.

The squad now moved onto the junior continuous sparring divisions, with our young squad members fighting against some tough opponents. Rachel Miller had a very hard opponent who was a kick boxer, Rachel fought hard and managed to gain a 2nd place. Tammy Sutherland and Kirsty Gough once again fought well and managed to fight off some serious opponents to gain 2nd a 3rd place. Kara Gough took another trophy and won a 2nd in the continuous sparring adding more trophies to the squads numbers.

The adult divisions started with point sparring and our first person up was Lisa Aitken. Lisa who is the lightest division of the competition had some hard fights, although she had a hard division she took a 3rd in the points. Later Lisa took a 2nd in the continuous sparring and was fantastic against her opponent.  Next up was Cecila Gough who did exceptionally well in the points and continuous sparring.  Cecilia had some pretty hard fights in the continuous division and had to fight some serious kick boxing ladies, however she was quick, hard hitting and took the Title and Gold for Scotland! Cecilia went on to take a 3rd in the point sparring division, which had some serious fighters in it.

Our Male competitors from A.I.M.A.A where Master Kirkwood, Ryan Kirkwood and Mr Paul Healy.  These gentlemen had waited all day and never got to compete until 5.30pm in the day.  Master Kirkwood and Ryan Kirkwood were first up in the points divisions. Master Kirkwood had a very large and hard division in the -80kg event.  Although he fought competitors half his age, he managed to fight through three rounds to take the 3rd place and did Scotland proud. Later on he went into his 2nd division which is the Masters 35yrs+ in which he had some hard fights, however once gain he fought hard with some serious techniques and took the Title and Gold. Well Done Sir!

Whilst Master Kirkwood competed we had Ryan Kirkwood fight on the adjoining mat, although he has just recently started to train again and compete he did exceptionally well and managed to gain a 3rd in the point sparring in his own weight division, but got beaten in a sudden death match in the open-weight division. 

Our last competitor was Mr Paul Healy who was waiting for his division to be called. Mr Healy enjoyed the event and had his eyes opened to the open martial art circuit in the UK. Although he would have usually have taken part in the full contact, Master Kirkwood thought he would be best to watch this time and ensure it was the same rules before competing in full contact in the UK. However Mr Healy did exceptionally well in the continuous sparring division of -80kg. His fight was hard and furious, and went to the wire. Mr Healy did an exceptional job and won Silver in his division.

The standard at the European was phenomenal in both junior and senior divisions and saw A.I.M.A.A take home many Titles and trophies. Master Kirkwood & Mrs Kirkwood would personally like to thank Mr Healy for taking the time out to join them in England, it was an honour for the squad to have them with them.

We would also like to thank the squad members who could travel to the event and represent A.I.M.A.A and their country. A special thanks to Mr Paul Healy, Mr Ryan Kirkwood, Mrs Cecilia Gough, Kirsty Gough, Kara Gough, Tammy Sutherland, Rachel Miller and Lisa Aitken. We also thank Mrs Lesley Sutherland and Mrs Miller for travelling with the squad, as well as a special thank you to Mr John Kirkwood who travelled with his family to support his father and the squad.

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