Kids competition Saturday 10th September 2005
Held at the Dojo Grosvenor Hall, Kennington, Ashford.

Saturdays competition was quite a success, with contestants from the Ashford and Deal club's battling it out in four different categories. The Tanto Taisabaki (Tanto competition) was particularly well fought and close run contest, with all the kids doing exceptionally well, considering the short time that they've had to prepare for it.

For many of the children this was their first taste of Aikido Competition and it was clear at the outset that some were very nervous indeed. However once they had all got started they were soon into the groove and performed really well. Clearly it was a long day and I'm sure the children were very tired by the end of it all (I know the adults were!!) but they seemed to have enjoyed themselves and will no doubt treasure their first medals and trophies for some time to come.

I'm sure they are all now looking forward to their next competition in Essex on the 1st of October. I would like to thank the senior grades from each club for acting as referees/ time keepers and scorers throughout the day and a special thank you to Sensei Mark Hayes-Watkins who arranged the sponsorship for the day.

We are hoping to be able to run our next competition some time early next year, either January or February when we hope that children from the Essex, Thanet and SE London clubs will be able to compete.

Bronze won by Bethanie Norman and Rebecca Norman
AND Pheobe Hayes-Watkins and Emma Goldsmith

Bronze won by Kelly Dempster, Josie Bricknell and Jolena Jepsen.
AND Daniel Dempster, Thomas Dempster and Callum O'Connor.

Photographs by Lis Jepsen

Previous competitions: