After last year’s success what could the members of Sil Lum Kune Kung Fu club expect this year? Well, it turned out just as big a success for the young martial artists. The proceedings began with the procession of athletes before the assembled dignitaries, the Mayor, the Sponsor and the Chinese ambassador and of course the packed audience. Samantha Davies and Nathan Hill from Sil Lum Kune had the honor of leading out the representatives from the different associations present. Samantha holding the team banner and Nathan escorting with his Kwon do.
The event started with the Lion Dance, which has become the traditional opening to the championships, and sets the atmosphere for the events to come. There was then a display by Master Chen Lei. His first demonstration was a long sword form, which was executed with his normal technical brilliance and dramatic flare. The spotlight shifted to the first events, which were the Qingda light contact sparring and the weapons forms. With both events running alongside each other the crowd started to warm up and there was a lively buzz developing.
By lunch the club had already started to mount up it’s medal tally and things were looking good for Sil Lum Kune. During the interval the crowd was again entertained by one the foremost exponents of Wu Shu, Master Chen Lei, who was four times Chinese champion and a great performer to watch. His next demonstration was a “Drunken” form, which is rarely seen, and was much appreciated by the crowd.
After lunch the Qingda sparring continued alongside the traditional and modern WU Shu forms. Wu Shu will hopefully be a demonstration sport at the next Olympics and the BCCMA is doing its best to build a team that may stand some chance of competing in the years to come. By early afternoon the medal ceremonies were well under way and results for the club were better than could be expected. Every club member that entered came home with a medal, some with more than one.
This does have a great impact on moral, and it makes all those hours of training worthwhile, not just because of the medal, but because they have put the effort in and seen some reward for it. These days there are an awful lot of distractions for kids and to keep on training on a regular basis does require a certain resolution, which I am glad to say does pay off both short and long term.
One thing you can say about these championships is that apart from being well run and well organized, the whole ethos of the event is one of participation and enjoyment, and from the stand point of an official and a parent of participants, it lives up to its own standard. The whole proceedings had a friendly and lively atmosphere that shone throughout the day. I suppose someone from outside the world of martial arts might expect a testosterone fueled punch up, where the winner is the one with most teeth left, nothing could be further from the truth. It always pleases me to see young the martial artists that take part in this event. They knowing there is a chance of getting hurt, or not turning in their best performance during a form, but can be seen after their events talking and laughing with the kids that they just been on the mat with. It just strengthens my belief that martial arts does have a way of instilling respect and spirit that other sports could do well to copy.
The results of the 2002 Junior British Championships are as follows:-
Qingda sparring
Gold medals -
Stephen Hill, Chelsea Baker, Rebecca Pritchards, Lewis Phipps, Samantha Davies, Sundeep Singh, Lloyd Baxter, Todd Flanagan-Jones.
Silver medals -
Nathan Hill
Bronze medals-
Connor Baker, Taryn Cockerill, Aaron Smith, Stacey Hill, Thomas Pritchards, Leo Jefferies, Kyle Smith.
Short weapons
Silver medal - Nathan Hill
Bronze medal - Stephen Hill.
Traditional northern forms
Silver medal - Nathan Hill.
Traditional souththern forms
Silver medal - Nathan Hill
Bronze Medal - Chelsea Baker.
Officals
Judges - Taryn Elwell, David Richardson, Kevin Redgrave, Alan Hill and Mark Pritchards.
Refereee - Paul Burkinshaw
All the entrants are from the local clubs within the Coventry, Bedworth and Nuneaton areas. Anyone interested in Kung Fu or Chinese Kickboxing should phone Chief Instructor Paul Burkinshaw on 07973 421860 for details.
Written by Mark Pritchards (student of Sil Lum Kune)
Coach and Chief Instructor Paul Burkinshaw was not only impressed with all the youngsters, but staggered by the squads overall results. They all performed well and the continued success for the local clubs is starting to give us a reputation in these national events for producing talented martial artists. This is not the first time we have won such a haul of medals, but to take a squad of 17, and everyone of them take medals is an outstanding achievement in my opinion. I would like to especially mention Todd Flanagan-Jones (from Coventry) who was also awarded a special achievement trophy on the day for his overall display of martial arts skills during the competition, and Nathan Hill (from Bedworth) who entered 5 categories winning medals in 4 of them. These two lads so impressed the officials that both have been asked to travel to China in the summer and train with the top Chinese coaches as a possible involvement in the 2008 Olympics to be hosted by China.