Here are the results of the BKK Welsh Open 2023.
We thank all the organisations, teams and coaches for working together to support full contact karate in the UK.
Thank you to the chief organiser Shihan Chris Davies and the Welsh dojos for all their hard work in preparing the event and to the tournament coordinators Senpai Gareth Jones and Sensei Emma Markwell, Chief Referee Shihan Andrew Turner, all the Tatami Managers and Officials for making this tournament a success.
GB Knockdown Coach, Sensei Kenny Jarvis, with the assistance of skills coaches Sensei Mike Charsley and Senpai Kenny Mortin, held the first adult national knockdown training session since the start of the pandemic, on Sunday 8th August in Verwood, Dorset.
Sensei Kenny will hold a further national training session in September with the hope of increasing attendees, not just elite fighters to develop knockdown skills. Additionally it is hoped we will be able to begin an active competition schedule before the end of the year.
Hayley Beth Rowlands will be competing this weekend at the 1st EFKO European Championships, in Antwerp, Belgium.
Fresh from her good form of current KWU European Champion, 2nd place 2019 British Open, and silver place at the recent KWU World Championships, Hayley will be hoping for success, and secure a place to fight in the WFKO’s World Championships in Japan, later this year.
Live streaming of the tournament can be found here
We wish her the very best of luck.
OSU!
Emma taking the fight to Ficks (IFK Russia) in the final match
The KWU held the 4th World Championships in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan on 7-8th December in a hotly contested and high-level competition.
Emma Markwell, having gained silver at the previous three champioships, finally took gold and the title of World Champion in the -65kg class, in an impressive display over 2 days beating her final opponent from Russia in an aggresive and tough match.
Congratulations to Sensei Emma, our World Champion!
Hayley Beth Rowlands battled her way through 2 days to gain a very well deserved silver place in her strong -5okg category.
Congratulations to Senpai Hayley on her first world podium placing.
Emma Markwell, Blake Collins, and Hayley-Beth Rowlands are representing Team GBR at the 4th KWU World Championships, in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan this weekend.
We wish them the best of fighting luck. Osu!
You can watch them live here, from 10am local time. Kazakhstan is GMT+6.
Sensei Emma Markwell was part of a select KWU team competing at the WKO’s 12th World Open Karate Championships in Tokyo Japan, held over two days on 8-9th November 2019.
This is an open weight tournament, and Emma had prepared herself well by making a very successful shift to the upper weight categories taking a European title in the process, culminating with an unprecedented British Open win against much heavier opponents in October this year.
Emma was the second fight of the day against a South African opponent with an awkward looping double right-hand punch. She executed her fight plan well, breaking her opponent’s balance and rhythm by attacking the inside back leg coupled with hard body shots, then drifting away from her opponent’s power-side all the while keeping pressure on her opponent. As the round progressed, Emma brought in knees and front-kicks, dictating the pace. One round, and 3 flags was enough to progress.
Her second opponent from Russia, was taller and more mobile than her first, intent on attacking Emma from the outside with an array of high kicks. Early in the fight, whilst giving her opponent a little too much space and time, Emma took a well-placed spinning back kick to the head. This did little to upset Emma’s rhythm who’s own tactic was to use head kicks then close the distance at high-tempo, attacking with body punches and solid low-kicks. Each time her opponent looked for space, Emma high-kicked nullifying the Russian’s ability to attack effectively – round one was a draw.
First extension, and Emma tactics started to wear her opponent down by beginning the round at an aggressive pace. Running out of space and energy, the Russian engaged Emma at close range, and was being systematically broken down to the body and legs. Sensing her opponent getting weaker, Emma came close with a Do-Mawashi Kaiten geri (rolling kick), then immediately returned to the full arsenal of head kicks, knees to the body, and relentless body shots and low kicks to earn her a place in the final 16.
Her third opponent was the Japanese and tournament favourite, Juri Minamihara. Emma’s tactic was to hold ground, firing hard punches and low kick to the calf against Minamihara’s aggressive forward style of high chest punches and low-kicks.
Two immovable forces resulted in Emma’s opponent leaning against her, grabbing and pushing at times to gain space or advantage. No decision after the first, leading to the same in the second round, now with Minamihara creating more lateral movement in attempts to off-balance Emma. To no avail, as Emma continued to pile on pressure, adding knees into each lateral movement from her opponent.
Round two, a draw. The final round saw an increase in pace and aggression from both fighters. The pressure was beginning to show, as Emma started to find success in creating space with low-kicks set up through her punches, with Minamihara reduced to small backward movements to gain space, grabbing at times to stem the flow. The two stood toe to toe throwing punches, and Emma hitting low kicks to off-balance her opponent, both finishing the fight aggressively with an incredibly vocal crowd. Three flags to Minamihara, who went on to win the tournament, and an incredibly impressive final 16 finish for Emma.
A huge congratulations to Sensei Emma for becoming part of select team to represent the KWU – a huge achievement, and for her tournament progress in a very partisan environment.
A number of BKK dojos sent fighters the IKK English Open, in Canterbury on 3rd November 2019, and came away with good results, and experience for our youth.
Katerina Nikolajeva BKK Gravesend 1st Place
Ashley Black BKK Crawley 1st Place
Elvin Vaskys BKK Crawley 1st Place
Antek Sobecki BKK Westcroft 1st Place
Brandon Wise BKK Westcroft 1st Place
Jessica Charsley BKK Verwood 1st Place
Phil Burchill BKK Verwood 1st Place
Dan Williams BKK Verwood 1st Place
Kartar Singh Cheema BKK Gravesend 2nd Place
Grace Emmett BKK Crawley 2nd Place
Louie Warnfeldt Rush BKK Crawley 3rd place
U18 Team England and Wales attended this year’s Sutani Cup, Antwerp, Belgium in numbers, and came away with invaluable experience.
Results and congratulations to:
Ashley Black (ENG - Crawley dojo) - 1st place
Antek Sobecki (ENG - Westcroft dojo) - 1st place
Holly Harvery (WALES - Mountain Ash dojo) - 2nd place
Katie Martin (WALES - Mountain Ash dojo) - 2nd place
James Baker (ENG - Saffron Walden dojo) - 2nd place
Brandon Wise (ENG - Westcroft dojo) - 2nd place
Cai Williams (WALES - Mountain Ash dojo) - 3rd place
Rhys Meredith (WALES - Mountain Ash dojo) - 3rd place
Seren Harries (WALES - Mountain Ash dojo) - 3rd place
Nathan Hyde (ENG - Eastbourne dojo) - 3rd place
Nikhil Patel (ENG - Loughborough dojo) - 3rd place
Mia Hawkins (ENG - Crawley dojo) - 3rd place
Another hotly contested tournament across all categories. See results below, and relive the action.
Cadets U18 Boys and Girls all categories
Womens Open -60kg/+60kg
Mens Open +80kg
U18 England vs USA / U18 Wales vs USA / U18 England vs Wales
Novice Mens & Womens all categories
Mens Open -70kg/-80kg
U18 Tri-Nations Team USA is:
Morgan Mates
Wiktor Gabala
Ethan Gregory
William Lawrence
Robleh Ahmed
Rhys Meredith
Tickets available here
U18 Tri-Nations Team USA is:
Lyric Schenker
Ryan Kraus
Tuari Schenker
Elijah Pallman
Reggie Gold
Daniel Waage
Tickets available here
U18 Team England Tri-Nations is:
Chloe Slocombe (Dunmow)
Ashley Black ( Crawley)
Rob Salvi (Crawley)
Luke Sabey (Saffron Walden)
James Baker (Saffron Walden)
Kartar Singh Cheema (Gravesend)
Tickets available here
On the 18-19th May, Ashley Black and Rhys Meredith from Crawley and Mountain Ash dojos respectively, represented the BKK as part of a unified Team GB alongside two members invited from the IKK (Callum Chapman and Harry Clemo), both regular England and GB squad training attendees.
[L-R] Back Row - Wai Cheung, Meidi Divash, Norman King, Andrew Turner, Alex Kerrigan, David Pickthall, Lia Howlett, Chris Davis
Front Row - Callum Chapman (IKK), Ashley Black, Rhys Meredith, Harry Clemo (IKK)
Both Ashley Black and Harry Clemo scored waza aris in their quarter final bouts to advance to the semi finals. Both lost out in the semi-finals to Russian national champions. There was more top level experience for Rhys Meredith and Callum Chapman who had tough bouts, and can feel pleased with their performances. Twenty seven countries took part and it was also great to have such a strong judging team from the UK.
Entries are coming in for this year’s Welsh Knockdown Championships hosted by BKK Wales.
See who’s in it to win it…
Entry closing date is 27th April ‘2019.
U18 England and U18 Wales were represented by 23 competitors at this year’s Pilatus Cup in Kriens, Luzern, Switzerland, lead by Wales Head Coach Sensei Chris Davies, and England Head Coach Sensei Wai Cheung, and skills coaches Shihan Sunil Tailor and Senpai Gareth Jones.
Fantastic results, and great learning experiences for all involved.
Kata Girls 4th Kyu+
Holly Harvey - BKK Wales 1st place
Seren Harries - BKK Wales 2nd place
Katie Martin - BKK Wales 3rd place
Kyokushin Rules
Boys 11-13yrs (Lightweight)
Ashley Black BKK England 1st
Daniel Parsons BKK Wales 2nd place
Boys 11-13yrs (Heavyweight)
Rhys Meredith BKK Wales 1st
William Lawrence BKK Wales 2nd place
Boys 14-15yrs (Lightweight)
Luke Sabey BKK England 3rd place
Boys 14-15yrs (Heavyweight)
Ethan Hardwick BKK Wales 3rd place
Girls 14-15yrs (Heavyweight)
Mia Hawkins BKK England 2nd
Katie Martin BKK Wales 3rd place
Girls 16-17yrs
Maesi Blackford BKK England 3rd
Boys 16-17yrs (Heavyweight)
Robert Salvi BKK England 2nd place
Boys 18-21
Dylan Baldwin BKK Wales 1st place
Girls 18-21yrs
Alicia Bennett BKK Wales 1st place
1st Ashley Black (England) , 2nd Daniel Parsons (Wales)
1st Rhys Meredith (Wales), 2nd William Lawrence (Wales)
1st Dylan Baldwin (Wales)
Kata 4th Kyu+: 1st Holly Harvey (Wales), 2nd Seren Harries (Wales) , 3rd Katie Martin (Wales)
Fighters from the BKK, as KWU representatives, and fighters from IKK and EMAR representing a unified Team GB attending the Kyokushin World Union’s (KWU’) 6th World Youth and 2nd European Adult Championships in Varna, Bulgaria on the 7th-9th December 2018.
This was a landmark occasion for the BKK in taking U16 competitors to a contact-based tournament, and we’re pretty sure the handful of parents that travelled with the team were more nervous than the squad.
The adult team provided high hopes of podiums with experience and consistency at European level with Luke Baldwin, Emma Markwell and Hayley-Beth Rowlands flying the flag.
3 days of tournament fighting with over 700 competitors saw very high-levels at all ages.
Our U18 team all had tough first round draws which was to be expected at such a prestigious championships; Ashley Black’s first taste at World level drew a strong fighter from Armenia, Mia Morgan’s opponent from Poland, Russian’s for Holly Harvey and Charlie Denton, Luke Sabey’s dream draw from Japan, and Rhys Meredith making it all the way through to the quarter finals beating opponents from Belarus and Romania, missing out on a semi final place to the eventual winner from Russia. IKK GB representatives Callum and Harry had tough draws from Bulgaria and Kazakhstan respectively.
With relative inexperience amongst our U18s at such a high standard of competition, all without exception showed determination and spirit on the mats, and conducted themselves commendably off the mats, representing the country and BKK proudly.
The Adult tournament was equally tough, and although pitched at European level, categories saw multiple World Champions on display vying for the KWU European title in only its second edition of the championships.
Luke Baldwin was drawn against former British Open champion and current KWU World Champion, Drodz from Russia who Luke had previously fought at K2 in Crawley. An improved performance from Luke but ultimately Drodz proved too powerful over 2 mins.
Emma Markwell looked strong, and full of conviction on her way to the semi finals where she met and took the fight to Shemina, her Russian opponent she’d fought earlier in the year at the IFK European Tournament in Armenia. Emma put Shemina on the back foot early in the round with combinations, and strong body and low kicks, keeping her off balance. It was clear the early onslaught and aggresion took Shemina by surprise, but she did enough to rally and bring about a draw going into the first extension.
Both looked to take mat centre at the start of the second round; strong chest punches and knees from Shemina saw Emma increase her own punch count and knee combinations as well continuing to deliver heavy low kicks unbalancing her opponent on a number of occasions. As the fight headed into final third, Emma increased her pace forcing Shemina to match her. Fighting to hold the centre of the mat, both fighters matched each other, although Emma’s low kicks clearly causing damage on her opponent.
With both fighters ready for a second extension and encho-sen, three judges unexpectedly raised flags for the Russian. Delight for Shemina who’s leg was visibly damaged after the fight, it was a solid but disappointing and nevertheless solid bronze medal performance for Emma.
Hayley-Beth Rowlands reached her first career major tournament final, with stoppages by punches and ushiro geri, and a commanding semi-final flags decision against Ukraine and Russia fighters respectively, setting up the final against Tsakiri of Greece.
Any signs of nerves were gone early in the fight as Hayley set about stemming her opponent’s aggressive start with stiff punches and hard leg kicks of her own. With a high-pace style of fighting, Hayley took control using angles to keep Tsakiri off balance, throwing direct and hook punches coupled with chudan mawashis and hizas to wear her opponent down. An attempted ushiro mawashi geri came close to connecting but for her loss of balance.
As much as Tsakiri tried to counter attack, Hayley was the clear aggressor in ascendance not giving her opponent any space or time to work. She was able to use her technical and strength superiority to continually move forwards, driving the Greek out of bounds in the final seconds of the round.
A unanimous decision after 3 mins meant Hayley deservedly became the -50kg KWU European Champion, and award for Best Female Technician.
Youth and experience combine for Great Britain at the KWU Kyokushin European Championship among men, women and seniors in weight categories, and 6th KWU Open Kyokushin Youth World Championship (kumite) in weight categories which are going to be held in Bulgaria, Varna, on December 6th – 10th, 2018.
Solid tournament performances and consistency sees the following fighters get their chance to represent Great Britain for the KWU’s year-ending showpieces.
Good luck to all. OSU!
GB U18 Team
Luke Davies (Cadet) - Mountain Ash
Sophie Hobbs (Cadet) - Mountain Ash
Ashley Black - Crawley
Charlie Denton - Crawley
Holly Harvey - Mountain Ash
Rhys Meredith - Mountain Ash
Mia Morgan - Mountain Ash
Luke Sabey - Saffron Walden
GB Adult
Luke Baldwin - Mountain Ash
Emma Markwell - Westcroft
Hayley-Beth Rowlands - Cardiff