GUILDFORD ACADEMY OF MARTIAL ARTS

On Sunday the Guildford Predatorz took a team to the Watford Open Nationals. It was a fantastic day with great representation from our Academy.

In the children's categories we had Junior C.I.T. Ben Calvert competing semi contact. It was his first fight of the year and he fought brilliantly. It took him a while to get into it, but pulled through and gave his opponent a run for his money. We look forward to seeing Ben's progress this year!

Kiri Nowak competed in the Ladies Semi Contact, storming her way to the final. In the final she took an early lead and despite being down by a couple of points half way through, she went on to win by several clear points. She followed this up with competing in the ladies' Light Continuous category, coming up against a very accomplished fighter in the first round. She won through with stronger techniques and movement, and went on to dominate her second fight and take home 1st place for the Light Continuous as well!

Luke Coppinger moved up from the cadets to compete in the Men's categories for the first time. Fighting a weight category above normal, he came up against two extremely experienced fighters in the points section and was the wrong end of a split decision in the first round of the Light Contact. He found it challenging but no doubt learnt a huge amount from the experience. This is going to be a huge year for Luke as he steps up the the adults' categories and no doubt before the year is up he will be one of the top fighters in the country.

Helen Milne competed in the Ladies Semi Contact. She was a little off pace and took a while to get into her stride, but showed her fighting spirit and kept battling to the end. This should be another great year for Helen and we look forward to seeing her progress.

Charlie Robinson also competed in the adults' categories for the first time, competing in the Novice Men's Light Continuous. After winning the first round, he fought brilliantly in the second round and was very unlucky not to be judged the winner - even the opponent's coach agreed that Charlie should have won!

Brendan Martin was up against a fantastic continuous fighter in the Intermediate Men's Light Continuous category. He fought very hard and showed great progress. He eventually lost on a split decision but it was very close and he was unlucky not to win.

All in all it was a great day and exciting for both spectators and competitors. Well done to everyone who competed and thank you to everyone who came down to watch and support our fighters. We will be taking a small team to the WAKO British Open on Saturday 18th - Sunday 19th February, and the next Tournament after that will be the GBMAA Interclub in Chessington on Sunday 26th February.