WKA CHAMPIONSHIPS 2010

MASTER KIRKWOOD - WKA QUALIFIER BOUT NO 2

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A.I.M.A.A Scotland attended the WKA Scottish Championships on Sunday the 7th of February. This championships was the official qualifier to the WKA World Championships, which will be held in Edinburgh in late October or November.

Master Kirkwood flew back from Ireland to attend the event with students and compete in the 35+ point sparring section. Also in attendance where students from his National Squad as well as Instructor Mr Alex Walker, Mr Karim Belgacem and Mrs Tracey Belgacem along with students from the Larkhall and Hamilton schools.

The competition kicked off with junior divisions and worked its way through to the adult divisions. The event had point sparring, continuous sparring, pattern and weapon forms on the day!    The A.I.M.A.A squad did exceptionally well in the point sparring sections and saw our junior competitors take Gold, Silver and Bronze in their divisions. The squad went on to claim more trophies in the continuous sparring, patterns and weapon forms.

A.I.M.A.A Instructor, Mr Alex Walker who teaches in Glasgow, overtook the duties of Senior coach and did an outstanding job looking after Master Kirkwood's students, until he arrived at the event. He then went onto coaching Master Kirkwood when he took to the floor for his 35+ yrs point sparring division. Master Kirkwood and Mrs Kirkwood where impressed by the professionalism and dedication by Mr Walker towards all the students and thank him for stepping into this role.

Our Junior competitors all excelled at the event showing what fine upstanding students they are in representing Master Kirkwood and A.I.M.A.A in this high profile championships, which saw competitors from many of the top associations come together in one place.

This open championships saw Miss Kirsty Gough take three Gold and the Scottish Titles in Points, continuous and patterns. Mr Mark Russell took Gold and the Title in the -18yrs Continuous sparring as well as win trophies in patterns and point sparring. Miss Lisa Aitken took silver in the adult Korean patterns, and narrowly missed out in the final in the continuous sparring division . Her fight was a very hard and gruelling one, that had the whole area shouting encouragement as both competitors battled their hearts out. "A fantastic fighter with the heart of a lion" was how one person described this young lady!

Master Kirkwood took part in the men's -35yrs point sparring division, which had to be cut down due to numbers entered! His first fight was over in minutes, as his opponent had sustained an injury and had to retire. His 2nd fight was exceptional to watch and got him through to the semi final. However, he was beaten in the last second of this fight, denying him a place in the final. His last fight of the day was hard as he battled out for 3rd place, which to the delight of his students he won!

Our Junior competitors who took part in the weapon divisions was Jack Reid and Jack Denholm, who both use the "Bo". Both students are self taught and show great ability and talent in this field, and both took 1st and 2nd in this division. They now are in training for the A.I.M.A.A European Championships in May, when they get to show off their talents again!

Our other competitors who excelled in sparring was Rachel Miller, who had some seriously hard fights and although was knocked out of the final won an impressive 3rd place, as she had a large division to fight in!  Although some of the students who attended were unfortunate to be placed this time, they all did an exceptional job and are a credit to A.I.M.A.A Scotland. Master Kirkwood would like to commend Tammy Sutherland from his school for her participation at the event, as well as Liam Walker and Sharan Tagore from Cho's Larkhall and Hamilton schools, who also did an outstanding job on the day.

Our squad now look forward to their Winter Interclub Championships in March as well as the many other events that are coming up this year!