Cocks Moor Woods Leisure Centre, Birmingham
The busy start to 2015 for EPIC students continued with another major tournament at the weekend, the WAKO British championships over two full days; Saturday Light Contact and Kick Light, Sunday Full Contact, Points Fighting and Forms. Once again our EPIC competitors proved that their recent string of successes were no fluke as more medals were won at one of the biggest tournaments in the UK. All the divisions were highly competitive, packed with quality clubs and competitors and as a result every medal had to be genuinely fought for.
Standout results came from two students currently making waves on the scene, Rio Williams and Kam Doyle. Rio came 1st in the -32kg category after 4 hard fights, especially the quarter-final, where he bested an opponent he had fought against for the past 3 years, only beating him once previously but this time he won 4-1 which made the title even sweeter. The win and the title meant that Rio held on to his prime spot on the GB team and is now looking forward to taking part in the European championships as part of Team GB.
It was a similar story for Kam, who after taking gold in the -52 category in a tense final that went to first to score sudden death, then found himself in the final of the -57 division where he regularly lost to his opponent but this year, for the first time he reversed the decision and became a double gold medallist.
Great performances aren’t always about gold medals and titles, however, they are as much about heart and improvement as anything else as epitomised by 8 year old Harvey Tyler. Harvey had a great weekend at the Championships producing some of his best fighting to date. He lost 4-3 in the quarter finals in the under 16 years -28kg and then came 3rd in 10years -28kg, winning 6 fights and losing 7-5 in the semi-finals of a massive category.
Kam Doyle’s siblings, Ellie and Harrison also continued their good form ensuring that all three Doyle’s ended up on the podium, Ellie taking bronze in both the points and light contact and Harrison taking bronze in 2 points divisions. With Ishana Moores taking silver in the 16-18 yrs -50k and bronze in the -55k and Ben Davies taking bronze in the same age group for -69k light continuous, the championships proved once again that the EPIC competitors are improving all the time and, as part of Team Bristol, becoming a real force to be reckoned with on the circuit. Proof that time, dedication and hard work from the competitors and their coaches really does reap rewards.
