BUCS Karate Championships 2017

The BUCS (British Universities & Colleges Sport, the merger of BUSA and UCS) karate championships are held as part of the annual BUCS Championships, in which students from all over the country compete in over twenty different sports. The competition uses WKF rules.

Photos

View photos of the competition.

Competition Report

On the weekend of 18th and 19th February, a team of eleven CUKC karateka travelled to Sheffield to compete in BUCS karate, the biggest student karate competition in Britain. Last year CUKC Having placed gold in team kata, and gotten close to medalling in some individual events in 2016, the team set off with high hopes to continue in this success.

First to the mats was team kata: Ellen Weaver, Amy Hall and Elisabeth Kerr represented Cambridge with a strong performance of Jiin. The team made it through their first round with an unanimous decision, but were beaten in the second round by a team who placed third in the competition.

Elisabeth Kerr, Ella Rechter, Stephen Ducray and Teo Heng Xuan represented Cambridge in individual kata. Elisabeth and Stephen gave strong performances but were knocked out in their first round, performing Jion and Shito-ryu Seienchin respectively. Ella progressed through her first round with Bassai-dai and was then narrowly defeated in the second round.

Heng Xuan made his way comfortably through the early rounds of the male senior individual kata competition. He won his first match five flags to nil with a strong performance of Jion. The second round saw Heng Xuan come up against the president of CUKCs biggest rival. As light blue faced dark blue, both performing Empi, tension in the stands was high. The teams held their breath as the competitors landed their jumps in unison. Oxford were once again defeated, however, as Heng Xuan continued his five flag streak through two more rounds with stunning performances of Nipaipo and Anan. In the semi final Heng Xuan performed Suparimpai, his fourth consecutive kata with no time to recover in between. The competition was close, as Cambridge faced Brunel University, shito-ry against shotokan. The competitor from Brunel University won narrowly 3-2, and went on to take the gold medal. Heng Xuan's performance on the Saturday was outstanding, as he pushed through exhaustion in a series of exquisite kata performances to place fourth out of 81 competitors.

In Male Novice Kata, Bruno Campos and Philip Rupp represented the kyu grades of CUKC. Philip received two 'byes' in his competition, and then proceeded through two more rounds before being knocked out of the competition. Bruno, however, stormed his way through the early rounds of the competition proceeding comfortably to the final. Unfazed by the pressure of the spotlight and stands full of spectators, Bruno defeated his Oxford opponent five flags to none with a spirited performance of Heinan Godan, bringing home gold for Cambridge.




For the final event on Saturday, Ellen, Ella and Amy lined up for female team kumite. Ellen and Ella fought their way to the final, undefeated in all of their matches against Edinburgh, York and Bath. Both women scored speedy ippons in a number of their fights, Ella in particular delivering a jodan mawashi geri in the first 5 seconds of her match. In the final, Cambridge lined up against a confident two woman team from Kent. Ellen and Ella put up a strong fight, but were ultimately beaten by two members of the WKF national squad - adding a silver to the successes of the day.



The second day of BUCS was dedicated to individual kumite with Ellen Weaver, Vlad Soltuz, Stephen Ducray ad Michael Jones representing Cambridge in their respective weight categories. Fighting in male under 67kg, Stephen lost in his first round against an agile competitor from Loughborough. In the under 75kg, Vlad won his first match 8-0, but lost in the second round. In senior male under 84kg Michael won his first match, and after two warnings for control to the head won his second by judge's decision. In the female over 68kg, Ellen won her first fight comfortably. In her second fight she lost against one of the finalists, so entered the competition again through repechage in which she won her third match with ease. In the next round Ellen fought hard against a tough opposition, but was defeated 4-0 with a number of contact warnings on both sides.

BUCS 2017 was an exciting weekend full of incredibly high level competition within the CUKC team and among many other competing Universities. A huge congratulations to those who competed, those who medalled and those who came close. Let's keep the competing energy going for Varsity weekend, Central Regions and the Kyu Grade Championships that are still to come.