January 22, 2007
Girl's Karate Team Qualifies for Nationals!
Left to right: Sari, Eri, Hitomi, Misuzu, Sayaka
Congratulations to the Girl's Team Kumite squad for qualifying for the All-Japan National High School Championships yesterday! Representing the school's co-ed karate club, the girl's squad placed Best 8 at the recent Kanto Regional High School Karate Championships by winning their first round, 4 matches out of 5, against Ichikawa High School from Yamanashi prefecture. The top 8 teams from each region will meet from March 24-27 in Wakayama City in Wakayama Prefecture for the Nationals this year.
Team Kumite is made up of 5 members fighting another team one member at a time, with the winning team achieving 3 or more wins. Each fight is 2 minutes long, the winner decided by who has the most points when time runs out, or the match is stopped short if someone reaches 8 points. Referees carefully watch the match and a center referee stops it every time a technique is scored to a award a point, or if there is an infraction to give a penalty.
The rules for athletes under 18 in Japan are slightly revised from the regular World Karate Federation (WKF) competition rules, because WKF rules state the winning athlete has to get 8 points ahead of the opponent's total points to stop the match early, not just eight points period. Due to this slight change, matches at Japanese high school tournaments are very fast and intense.
This is the first time our girl's kumite team has qualified for Nationals from the school, and only the second time for someone from the girl's squad (Sakurako Motohashi qualified for individual-only kumite 2 years ago). Since female students have only been accepted into the school for the last 3 years, this is a big accomplishment for our karate club!
The school wishes the girl's best of luck at Nationals, in Japanese zenkoku (全国)! For sure they will bring back a great result, plus Japanese oranges (mikan) and sour plums (umeboshi) as souvenirs, Wakayama’s popular food...
RM