Double tournament for BKO today.
Point fighting cup In Milan Italy.
Maggie 3rd X 2
Charlotte 3rd
Robbie 3rd
Rossi 4th. 

George reached the quarter finals in the mens open weight where he lost narrowly to the eventual overall winner.
Awesome achievement against the best in the world well done . :)
At the other end we took a little team of beginners, first timers and restarters for an enjoyable day to Winchester Grand slam. This is the smallest tournament we attend and is great for first timers or people gaining mat time.

        

The junior beginners kickboxing course started last week Tuesday 6-7pm. We got straight into the training and exercisises and  and everyone really enjoyed themselves. A couple of the kids stayed for  the next kids class and a few also turned up to the Saturday class. The course is £25 and includes all the other kids classes free. There is still plenty of room for new comers to join. Just message me.

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Next tournaments for BKO will be Winchester April 8th and some of the team will be travelling to Points fighting cup in Milan, Italy. I know where I'd rather be!. Oh well! :)

Next BKO beginners course starts on Weds 4th April 6-7pm.
Get fit, Have fun, Learn a great sport, defend yourself, meet new people
£40 for 6 weeks plus any other BKO class free for the duration of the course. Red belt grading on completion.
What are you waiting for?
Message me to reserve a space.

This week BKO entered two tournaments.

George headed for the Dutch open in Amsterdam. It was along drive to get to the venue which this year was run on one day. This made it especially long. George started competing at 9.30 am a nd finished at 11.30 pm. There was also very strong competition this year.

He entered the open weight where he eventually met Richie Veres from Kiraly team. It was a close and shut out affair and |George lost 5-2 in the end.

In the Tag team he was with Brando Prince and they fought a stong fight against the Norweigan opponents, but it seemed the refs were unable to see their scores and they lost by a point.

In the -74kg  section George beat several opponents 10 clearing some and scoring with spinning kicks and a tornado kick. He was extremely tired at this point and had a deal with Brandon that if they reached the semi finals and had to mette eachother one would drop out giving the other energy for the final. Because it was the -74kg category it was George who had to step aside leaving Brandon to win the section and George to pick up 3rd.

George v Richie Veres.

The rest of the team went to the Cimac Superleague in High Wycombe. A great new venue and a well attended tournament.

We saw Katrina start the day by running from mat to mat to compete in several sections and get a third.

Star of teh day Was Maggie who gain 4 GOLDS!! in light con and points. She also won the -37kg section which is 9 kilos heavier than her. An amazing performance and one that inspired the whole team  as Maggie showed her workmanlike approach and never say die attitude.
Robbie then emulated Maggie and gained his first Gold at the Superleague with a great composed performance, following this up wath a silver.

Charlotte also improved her game and fought through to the finals where she fought a great fight but lost by a point.

Liz also got a silver and showed how her points fighting has improved.
Adam also got a bronze.

There were some great performances today. Andy Evans timing and strategy was much better. Rossi fought well and and was brave enough to enter the light con, a discipline he  has not had ,uch practice in. where he fought a very experinced fighter who hit hard. Andy Gould also entered his first tournament and gave a great performance as did his son Dan.

Not a bad start to the  Super league, but there will be plent more opportunities to get on that podium and become a grand champion.

Congratulations to Drew on getting her Yellow belt after completing her basics, bagwork, padwrok and sparring.

Well done.

The Irish open was very difficult this year. Not necessarily because of the talented  fighters that attend, but because of the atrocious weather that shut down Dublin Airport und several inches of snow.

Some of us were stuck at Gatwick for 10 hours and then had our flights cancelled with no way of re scheduling.  More of our team spent 3 days at the Ferry terminal in Holy head waiting for the weather to clear. Their preserverance paid off and they managed to arrive on the Saturday.. This was too late for Liz however as she missed her 5categories that she entered!!

Everyone was understandably tired, but still competed in teh much reduced tournament giving some good bouts to their opponents.
Paige, fighting in her first Irish open fought with great skill and determination to get a 3rd place losing narrowly to the eventual winner of her section. It has long been an ambition of Paige to compete at this tournament and she is keen to return and take the top spot next year.

Paige at Dublin.

We reached the finals of the Basingstoke sports awards in several sections this year. Club of the year, Team of the year, Coach of the year, junior ladies and senior ladies, volunteer coach of the year.

Liz got a very creditable 3rd place in the senior ladies where she was up against many world champions and athletes  from Basingstoke.

The Kids team also came in 2nd place in their section.

We all went to teh Appollo hotel for a meal and presentations and had a very nice time.

We will be pushing for top spots next year.

Congratulations to the yellow belts who took their grading on 22nd Feb 2018. Lots of hard work  showing basic techniques, combinations, bagwork, padwork, dfences and sparring.