WADO EXL 2007 Karate Championships
Fallon represented Wadokai England and British Wadokai Karate at the WADO EXL in Shrewsbury on 30th September.
Sunday, 30th September saw competitors travel from far afield to descend upon Sundorne Sports Village in Shrewsbury for this eagerly anticipated Wado event of the year. This unique event brought together many of the major Wado associations in the UK. The event was held in association with Traditional Karate. WadoExl Registration Officer Frank Johnson 4th Dan had been busy promoting and organising this event for many months and was looking decidedly anxious at the start of the day. He had every reason to be anxious as there were reputed to be over 1000 pre-registered entries.
Sakagami Sensei 7th Dan Honbucho declared the event officially ‘open’ and was the Chief Kata Judge for the day. Dave Allsop 7th Dan and Peter May 6th Dan were the two other Kata judges presiding over the contest.
Three mats were running, Kata in the centre and Kumite on either side. Fallon Rayman represented British Wadokai Karate at the WADO EXL for Kata. Her first category was mixed, 11 – 15 yrs, 3rd Kyu and over. This was always going to be a tough challenge as Fallon has only recently turned 12 and her 3rd Kyu grading was less than a month ago. Nevertheless, she was determined to do her best for her club. She has recently been selected to represent Wadokai England in both Kata and Kumite at Gothenburg, Sweden at the European Championships so she was looking to gain a bit of experience at this competition before flying out to compete in November.
She was last on to the mat and she chose to perform Chinto. This scored 7.3 from all three judges and her total of 21.9 was enough to see her safely into the final cut in third position. Her following Kata, Wanshu, scored 7.2, 7.3, 7.3 a slight wobble on landing the final jump cost her a few points. However, when the scores of both rounds were added together and the final score was announced she had made it into the showcase final by 0.1 and was assured of the Bronze.
Her next Kata event was the girls, 11 – 15 yrs, 3rd Kyu and over category. Again this was always going to be difficult, however, she gave it her best shot. Again she chose to perform Chinto this time scoring 7.3, 7.4, 7.2 respectively. She was pleased to learn that Sakagami Sensei had scored her the 7.4 and these marks also saw her into the final cut, which was a huge achievement in itself. This time she landed the jump perfectly in Wanshu leaving her with scores of 7.3, 7.4 and 7.2 which left her in fourth position. Having just missed out on the showcase final for this event Fallon took much comfort in the fact that Sakagami Sensei had again marked her highly.
After a short break for lunch the action continued until well into the afternoon. There were some outstanding displays of both Kata and Kumite throughout the day all leading up to the showcase finale, which kicked off on schedule at around half past five.
The two other contenders in Fallon’s final, Katrina Wilson and Chloe Hooper (Tobi Ishi Kai) were both in the top age and grade of the category and their Katas were outstanding. They both chose to perform Bassai in the final and scored very highly. Happy to settle for Bronze Fallon just wanted to perform a good final Kata and enjoy herself and the experience. She performed Kushanku in the final and finished in third place by 0.2 of a point. She was very happy that she had kept at a reasonable distance behind these two other young ladies who thoroughly deserved their medals.
During the closing ceremony GE Swift, Kyoshi 7th Dan, was awarded the 'prestigious' commemorative award for the 'Promotion and Preservation of Wadokai and Wado-ryu Karate'. Gary is the Founder and Life President of the Alliance of International Wado ryu and also the Chief Instructor of British Wadokai Karate. He has spent many years actively promoting Wado unity and he thoroughly deserves this recognition by his peers. He is also Fallon’s Chief Instructor and it is directly down to his intense instruction and that of Sensei Paul Elliott 6th Dan that Fallon did so well. She would very much like to thank both of them for everything that they have done over the past year that has culminated in seeing her pass selection on to the Wadokai National Squad and do so well at prestigious events like this.