Madeleine Wood - Club Instructors

3rd Dan KUGB
Women's Captain 2007-08

Madeleine started shotokan karate at the age of 7 at Ponteland Karate club in Northumberland. Under the tuition of Ian Willis, 5th Dan, she graded to Shodan at the age of 12 and Nidan at the age of 16. She passed Sandan with CUKC in 2008 under Senseis Sherry, Poynton and Brennan, becoming the first woman 3rd Dan in CUKC's history.

Save one appearance at Northen Regions for team kata, competition was a new endeavour for Madeleine when she joined CUKC in 2005. However, she made a strong impact on the women's team right from the start and won team kata golds at the KUGB Student Nationals and Central Regions Championships in her first year of competing, together with medals in individual and team kumite. In 2007 Madeleine became U21 kumite champion at Centrals and in 2008 was selected for the senior KUGB England squad.

The victory in the 2007 Varsity Match was a particular highlight for Madeleine as the Cambridge women's team succeeded in tight kumite and kata wins against a more experienced Oxford team, bringing home the women's trophy for the first time in over four years.

As Captain Madeleine brought an enormous amount of enthusiasm and dedication to the women's squad, and as a result got huge numbers of women to compete, many for the first time. There can be no better demonstration of her success at getting women to compete than the two full women's kumite teams CUKC entered at Centrals. She rounded off her year as Captain in style by taking bronze in open-weight kumite at BUSA, gaining her a Full Blue.