What a difference a fortnight makes to the weather.  Two weeks ago it was cold and bleak with a snow fall whilst today we were greeted with mild temperatures and bright clear blue skies.   The party of fighters was: Aime, Patrick, Rhuirdh, Ryan, and Stephen.  A big thank you also the supporting spectators.

The entry fee today was a flat £20 for two categories.  It appears that this was to encourage fighters to compete in the light contact categories.  The light contact categories were run first from the kids through to adults with the semi-contact categories following on.

We had Stephen and Ryan in the 16 and under tall boys light contact category.  Ryan won third place but the star of the show had to be Stephen who fought exceptionally well in the qualifying rounds to earn a place in the final.  However his qualifying fight was not easy and his opponent seemed to have a bit of bother keeping the kicks above belt level.  The result of those several low painful kicks was that he was unable to fight in the final and defaulted to a second place result.

that's the light con out of the way...

As a side note it is my personal opinion that the general level of contact within the light contact section today was excessive, particularly in the men sections.  If anyone from the IAKSA committee visits this site I would hope that you would review the refereeing of the acceptable level of contact.

In the boys semi-contact 16 and under section Ryan and Stephen both fought very well through their qualifying rounds and ended up fighting each other in the final and you can see the fight below.

In the 16 and under girls semi-contact Aime fought three great fights to get into the final.  Her opponent was a TAGB (Tae Kwon Do) fighter who was a bit taller and definitely more experienced than Aime.  The fight was a close run thing with Aime taking an early lead only to lose it, pull it back to a draw and then narrowly lose the fight by a single point to win a well respected 2^nd place.

Well done everyone.