June 17, 2015
Seiritsu's Girls Karate team head to Kanto!
After Seiritsu's Sports Festival on June 4th, the very next day the karate coaching staff and the girls team headed to Fukaya, Saitama prefecture, to participate in the team kumite event of the High School Karate Federation's summer Kanto tournament.
Although Saitama is a neighbouring prefecture to Tokyo, the journey to Fukaya's "Big Turtle" arena still involved an hour train journey and a 30 minute walk to the venue. It was a great warm up for the team!
The first day (Friday 5th) was light practice and the opening ceremony, where the girls walked in holding the Seiritsu name placard; it had been 2 years since it was last used.
The following day was the tournament proper, with the two elimination rounds of each event. As the kata (patterns) events usually go first, our team had to wait until the afternoon before their time on the mats. They spent the morning admiring kata and also warming up for their matches. Sadly, despite a brave effort, they couldn't get past their first opponents, Yamanashi gakuin.
As they were not involved on the third and final day, the students spent the day watching the matched and cheering for the Tokyo teams. The level of karate at this tournament was certainly very high, so it was a great experience for all to come and study the better teams up close.
The final standings were (Japanese language only)
Kata individual girls
Kata individual boys
Kata team girls
Kata team boys
Kumite individual girls
Kumite individual boys
Kumite team girls
Kumite team boys
Congratulations to all the schools and athletes, and I hope everyone tries equally as hard for the upcoming Inter-High qualifiers!
Peter Williams
International Coordinator & Karate Club Coach