Luciano, Richard, Dan & Olly
Eight members of Hereford's Combat Academy travelled to Worcester to compete in the British Open Ju-Jutsu Kumite championships and returned with 3 British Champions, 3 silver and 2 bronze medallists.
The 2004 British Champion at under 26kg, 8 year old Olly Bohn had moved up to the under 30kg category. Olly gave an outstanding performance scoring with head kicks, throws and some very competent ground-fighting en-route to the Gold Medal and his second British Title.
A Bronze medallist at last years event Luciano Celozzi was looking to improve on his placing. Competing in the under 40kg category Luciano put in his best effort to date, defeating 4 opponents to take the Gold Medal and a 2nd British Title for The Academy.
The 2004 British Champion in the white - green belt category, Becky Hayes fought in the open grade category. Becky secured several good wins, including a black belt en-route to the final. In the final Becky faced another Black Belt and unfortunately suffered an injury to her arm early on in the fight. Despite a valiant effort from Becky, the Black Belt was a little too good for her and so she had to settle for a hard earned Silver Medal.
Dan Hayes competed in the under 50kg open grade category. In his opening fight Dan faced a Ju-Jutsu brown belt and secured victory with a very good display of tactical fighting. Two further wins placed Dan in the final where he faced the opponent he had defeated in last years final. Dan was caught with a 3 point take-down early in the fight and was unable to claw back the deficit, and so for this year had to settle for the Silver medal.
Richard Baker competed in the under 50kg white-blue belt category. Although he scored some points with striking techniques, his display of throwing techniques was outstanding. Richard scored with a couple of 5-point throws, which are only awarded for the most spectacular of techniques. In the final Richard was losing 6 – 4 when he looked to have scored with a 3-point throw, unfortunately the referee did not award the score and so Richard had to settle for the Silver medal.
Bram Emma Lee
The 2004 Junior British Champion, Emma Baker competed in her first Senior Nationals. In her opening fight Emma faced a Blue Belt from the Gracie Barra Swansea club. Emma displayed a good variety of skills to win the fight 10 - 0. In her next fight Emma face Leoni Munslow, a Ju Jutsu Black Belt and Multiple time British Champion. Despite a brave effort Emma was forced to submit to a choke-hold.
In the fight off for the Bronze Medal Emma faced old adversary Sara Davies from the Falcons Club. Emma and Sara have faced each other many times with Sara being victorious in all previous matches. This time Emma put in a fantastic performance to beat Sara by a single point to take the Bronze medal.
A Bronze medallist at last year event, Bram Roberts was looking to improve his performance in the under 90kg category. Bram displayed some very good ground-fighting skills en-route to the final where he faced old adversary Andrew Bayton from the Falcons Club. The fighters know each others fighting ability and the fight was always going to be a close fought match. Bram scored a single point with a punch and then employed the tactic of taking the fight to the floor in order to run the clock down. The tactic worked and Bram became the third British Champion of the day for the Combat Academy.
Lee Emmett has been training at the Academy for less than a year and is still a white belt, but coaches Dave Coles and Simon Small thought that it would be good experience for him to fight in the British Championships.
Unfortunately in his first fight Lee faced a Ju Jutsu black belt and quickly found himself 6 points down. Lee then scored with a 2-point kick to the head and followed up with 2 further points for punching techniques. In an attempt to stop Lee’s striking techniques the Black Belt took the fight into the grappling range but was caught with a 3-point throw which gave Lee an unbelievable 7 - 6 win.
In his next fight Lee faced another Black belt and was narrowly defeated after the fight had gone the distance. In the fight for the Bronze medal Lee put in another outstanding performance, far exceeding his coaches expectations, and taking the Bronze medal.
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