And over at Funakoshi Karate International South Africa…

On Saturday 6 November, at Scotsdene Sports Hall, Boland Karate held its final senior tournament for 2010, aptly named the Boland Development Championship. A number of styles and dojos were invited to compete, including the Spartans who came all the way down from Ceres in a sizeable number in order to partake in this final bit of friendly rivalry.

Head of Boland Karate, Sensei Elias Jacobs was there to oversee the tournament, while under the firm thumb of tournament director Sensei Birgitt Smit, Scotsdene Hall was transformed into a proper battle arena, complete with two matted fighting squares and one marked out kata area.

Unfortunately support from the general public was pretty slim, but thankfully there were enough friends, family and karateka to fill the stands and after an official march in and introduction from Elias, the final tournament for the year got under way.

This was the first tournament in which veterans were allowed to partake, effectively lifting the age limit off the combatants and opening up a number of new categories to soak up. Proceedings kicked off with a unison kata with bunkai from Funakoshi Karate International South Africa, with kata Kigai being performed by Chris Mourdik, Gerhard Roos and Craig Lotter.

From there the teams were put through their paces, going through the various age and weight divisions, for both kata and sports kumite. There were a number of members of the South African Proteas team in attendance and we got to marvel at their display of high level skill in both the form and fighting sections.

The tournament itself was a great success and Funakoshi Karate International South Africa enjoyed some further representation in the kumite sections thanks to the efforts of both Jens Smit and Jason.

Tournament proceedings were finally ended off with some brilliant unison kata with bunkai displays from six different teams, with the senior men’s Protea team in particular wowing everyone with their precise and very sharp movements!

Finally, a successful (if somewhat short) day was rounded off with the official Boland year-end prize giving, in which both karateka and administrative staff alike, were rewarded for their commitment and achievements in the realm of Boland karate for 2010.

In other words, the Boland karate calendar year closed off on the perfect note! Osu.

(For more photos, visit the Funakoshi Karate International South Africa website!)