Another huge turnout for another great competition, this time in Gloucester city centre. Dokan made the long journey on the Saturday stopping for the night at a Premier inn before entering the tournament on the Sunday. As we arrived in Gloucester at 1.30 we had a bit time to spare before our evening meal. So we went for a ramble around Gloucester and its docklands, this included a beer and a visit to a karting/lazer-quest place before going back to get ready for dinner.

The competition had more competitors than ever before with over 200 more than last year so from the off I could see we were heading for problems. Another unusual aspect was that all the under 12s categories were to be finished before they started the 13 plus events, but as the day seriously over-ran this became an issue when we were supposed to leave at 5.00 p.m. yet many of our older competitors had done nothing at all. We ended up staying much later than anticipated and left at 7.10. We arrived back in Sunderland at 12.15 am which is too late for me, never mind the kids.

The competition itself was fantastic, with not only loads of the top competitors in attendance but also many new faces to us, a lot of which were good quality themselves. And the trophies were top quality too.

Dokan had a fabulous start to the day dominating the junior kata sections and we continued in this vein throughout the day, although we were not as fortunate in kumite. The sections were huge, often with more than 30 competitors in them, so yet again we had to fight for what we got. I mean that literally as those in under 9 years sections fought in mixed sex groups.

Yet again our older female squad shone and stood out in the kata sections and our youngsters done brilliant with some great results throughout the squad. We finished the day by having to pull out of 4 sections due to the time but still won 16 gold, 12 silver and 18 bronze medals. The fact we won ten sections made us the top gold winning club yet again at another major tournament.

At last our teams and pairs are looking more like what I expect to see from my students and their form was fantastic on Sunday. I was really pleased with the entire kata squad who all looked class. We even had some surprise kata awards for some of our kumite kids.

I have never been prouder of my squad.

Tags: competitions, 2016