Milton Keynes.

Sil Lum Kune had entered 2 fighters to compete in the competition, Joseph Javadi and Othmame Mallouk.  Sifu Chris Mee was the coach for the fighters, with assistance from Matt Reynolds. There were also a number of other club members who came to support the two fighters and help the day run smoothly.

The day kicked off with excitement, Joseph only just making the weigh in deadline, and being placed in the heaviest category. Othmame was placed in the lightest category. After sizing the competition up during the weigh in, the club members felt confident of some exciting fights to come. The schedule placed Joseph and Othmame’s fight in close proximity in the latter half of the day.

The first fights of the day were the women’s sparring. There was a wide range of skill levels displayed, and some high-quality fights. Following this was the junior men’s category, and finally the adult men’s. Again through all the weight categories there was a wide range of skill levels displayed, and a number of exciting fights ensued between members from a variety of clubs including Nam Yang and Shoulin Temple in London.

Joseph was the first of the Sil Lum Kune fighters to enter the ring, up against a member of Nam Yang. The coaches had psyched him up well, and Joe was confident the fight would not go the distance. He kicked off the first round with a flurry roundhouse kicks; however he failed to achieve the 20 second knockout he had been aiming for! Joe did dominate the first round however, with strong strikes to his opponent’s body and face, and Joe’s attacks managed to force him out of the ring. The second round was much shorter, but again was dominated by the SLK fighter. Joe forced his opponent off the mats twice, resulting in his victory.

Othmame’s fight was shortly after, and again the coaches had done a good job in warming and psyching him up. He started the first round with composure, taking time to size his opponent up, and opened with a massive roundhouse kick to his opponent’s thigh. Unfortunately it also clipped the opponent’s knee, resulting in Othmame breaking his foot. Nevertheless he soldiered on without a word of complaint to the judge or coach, and executed a perfect spinning reverse roundhouse kick to his opponents face… with his broken foot!

The round ended fairly evenly, and Othmame received some stern words from the coaches for what appeared to be a low intensity performance. However he still didn’t complain about his foot so we were none the wiser! Unfortunately the injury began to take its toll in the second round, with Othmame stumbling on the injured foot. To make matters worse it appeared Othman began to trip up on his loose ankle wrap. This resulted in a count out when the coaches tried to remove the wrap, and we were all disappointed with this outcome. Othmame had put up a tremendous fight especially considering his injury, and it was a shame he had lost the fight in such a way.

Unfortunately Joe was also carrying an injury into the final, which he had picked up in his first fight. The final started with excitement with an exchange of powerful roundhouse kicks and dunks from both fighters, culminating in Joe’s spinning back hammer fist to his opponents face. Unfortunately the intensity of the fight led to Joe’s shin injury getting worse (it turned out he had fractured his shin), and despite his willingness to go on, the medics ruled him out of the fight.

It seemed almost unfair that both fighters had been eliminated through injury, especially considering they each were one of the strongest in their category. However the achievements should not be overlooked, both of the Sil Lum Kune fighters showed a great level of skill, effort and composure, and Joe even secured a Silver medal despite his injury.

Written by Andy Cronin