News

 

30th October
It is with great regret that we have to announce that Joe Anderson (Senior) age 78, 7th Dan and founder of Toyakwai Karate passed away in the early hours of Friday the 30th October. He lost his fight against cancer which he had for the last 6 months. Joe was always asking about all the karate clubs and the competitions right up to the end. Joe was in martial arts for 45 and enjoyed every minute of it.

22nd Feb
It is with great regret that I have to let you all know that a very good member of the Association Rose Gauci (Mother of Jay Gauci) sadly passed away Wednesday morning at a young age. For the last 15 years Rose helped at all the competitions, my club and abroad. Rose was always there for all the children to help them get to the standard that  they are today, many of whom turned out to be England Fighters.
Joe Anderson

Day 2
 

Toyakwai  Karate Squad

Day two - juniors

36th European Junior & Cadet Championships, Paris, France 2009

Live reports from Paris

Posted 31st January 2009
2nd Day of Competition - Juniors

Day 2 of the championships and this time it’s the turn of the Juniors to impress and surpass the exploits of the Cadet squad members who did very well yesterday. The squad were a little bleary eyed in the morning having to get up earlier for the 7:30am coach.

Stephanie Thorndick was up next in the U53kg category. Stephanie looked in good shape but dropped two early points to her Serbian opponent. Stephanie then chased the fight and although she picked up a point she eventually bow at 5-1.

 Alex’s were in action at the same time but different ends of the hall. Alex Kinsmore competed in the U76kg category and fought a tough opening round match against a Slovenian opponent but eventually came out a 4-2 winner after coming back from an opening 2 point deficit following a Chudan Mawashigeri kick. The 2nd round match saw Alex face a Serbian opponent and Alex kept his winning ways going beating him 6-3. The 3rd round is where Alex’s medal hopes ended as Alex initially gave away a penalty point to his Ukrainian opponent before getting caught with a Gyakuzuki punch. Alex pulled back a point but then lost out again to another Gyakuzuki punch. A final Jodan Mawashigeri kick ended the match 6-2.

Again there was terrific support from families and friends of the team, it was also nice that the English Karate Federation President Carl Lindley sat with the squad and supporters to cheer the competitors on. Also there have been Club Instructors and some senior team members watching and supporting the next generation of senior squad hopefuls.

Again, upon the squads return to the hotel, the coachs congratulated the Junior members who had competed and said how proud they were of the team and what true team spirit they showed. Carl Lindley reiterated the coach’s sentiments adding that England was back and a force to be reckoned with. The squad then retired for the evening in anticipation for the final events on Sunday.

 

 

DAY 1

Toyakwai  Karate Squad

36th European Junior & Cadet Championships, Paris, France 2009

Live reports from Paris

Posted 30th January 2009
Day 1 - Cadet Competition Day

What a day… It started early with the squad congregating together at 8:15 waiting for the transportation coaches to take them to the stadium for the first day of competition. All on the bus swiftly enough and were soon inside the stadium waiting for the tournament to officially start.

The Cadets, 14-15 year olds were the only ones competing today, the Juniors are on tomorrow with the under 21’s on Sunday.

The Kata competitors were on the mats first with Rachel Newey up before Mitchell Roberts had taken to the mats. Rachel performed Bassai-Dai in her opening round against her Maltese opponent’s Kanku-Dai Kata. The flags went 4-1 in Rachel’s favour safely seeing her into round 2. Her 2nd round saw her compete against a competitor from Belarus. Rachel performed her second compulsory Kata, Seienchin whilst her opponent performed Bassai-Dai. The flags went 3-2 but this time they went against Rachel scuppering her European medal hope by the narrowest of margins.

The Kumite competitors were up next with Oliver Doyland competing in the Male U52kg category. Oli received a warning within the first 10 seconds in his opening round fight but held it together scoring a Gyakuzuki punch and then picking up another point from his German opponent to win the fight 2-0. Oli’s 2nd round fight was against a Spanish opponent and both athletes went the whole two minutes without scoring a point against each other. In the extra-time the ensued, the Spaniard scored a 3 point Jodan Mawashigeri kick almost immediately. It took Oli nearly the whole remaining minute to level the score with his own Jodan Mawashigeri. With the scores tied at 3-3 following extra-time a vote was called, 2 flags each but the referee’s decision went to the Spaniard knocking Oli out in the cruellest of ways.

Chloe Cooper competed in the U47kg event and looked like one of the smallest competitors in this event. She fought a Ukrainian opponent in the 1st round and received a few hard knocks for which her opponent gave away 3 points in total. Chloe held her opponent off until the dying seconds where the Ukrainian girl delivered a 3 point Jodan Mawashigeri to level the score and take the fight into extra-time. After one minute of extra-time the scores remained unchanged and the decision went to the judge’s vote. All voted for Chloe who progressed into the next round. Round 2 saw her fight like a little lion spurred on by her previous win to take the match 6-0 against her Greek opponent. The 3rd round proved a little tougher for her as she fought a tricky Croatian. Chloe scored the first point with a Gyakuzuki punch with 45 seconds remaining but just 15 seconds later her opponent equalised to level the fight 1-1 and take it into extra-time for her. Once again extra-time failed produce a score from either competitor and the judge’s decision was called once more. Surprisingly she lost the vote 4-0 even though \Chloe did most of the pressing and attacking. Fortunately the Croatian went on to make the final leaving Chloe in the repechage rounds. After almost missing her semi-final repechage match she finally scores with just over a minute left on the clock and holds out for the win over her Armenian opponent. Now in the repechage final and going for Bronze she found herself up against a tough ‘leggy’ Turkish opponent. The Turkish girl scored a 3 point Jodan Mawashigeri against Chloe very early on and then caught her again shortly after. Chloe began to fight back claiming a point to reduce the deficit but as she pressed she was caught once again by a Jodan Mawashigeri kick ending her bronze medal hopes losing 9-1.

Hannah Baker lost the initial point to her Turkish opponent in the opening round of the +54kgs event however, Hannah scored a thumping chudan Mawashigeri with 20 seconds left to take the lead. Within the final 10 seconds her opponent pushed her giving away a penalty point and extending Hannah’s lead to 3-1. The 2nd round pitted Hannah against a tall Russian girl but she was unperturbed and scored on the minute to take a 1-0 lead. 30 seconds later Hannah doubled her lead scoring another Gyakuzuki punch to finish off her opponent. The third round saw Hannah score a Gyakuzuki punch on the minute once again against a Slovakian opponent and frustrate her opponent to keep the 1-0 lead to the end securing a win. The fourth round was the semi final against Bosnia Hertz. Hannah was 1-0 up within 10 seconds and 20 seconds later 2-0 up. Hannah scored her 3rd point before the half way mark, and 2 more Gyakuzuki punches saw her extend her lead to 5-0 . Hannah’s opponent scored a last minute point but it made no difference to the outcome and securing her place in the final. Like Ryan before her, her final was held after the opening ceremony in the centred spotlighted mat. Hannah fought a cagey fight against her Belgium opponent but dropped an early point and another towards the end which ended up her claiming a silver medal.

Hannahs fight was the last of the day and after the medal ceremony everyone headed back to the hotel for dinner and an early night. The coach’s congratulated everyone as did the EKF President Carl Lindley. After some encouraging words for the squad competing tomorrow everyone made their way back to their rooms for an early night.

 

7th Dec 2008

13th Oct 2008
Toyakwai senior team now 2008 English and British team champions

11th Sept 2008
Commonwealth Championship 2008, KATA 1 Silver, KUMITE 5 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze

9th July 2008
EKF SOUTHERN REGION CHAMPIONSHIPS 2008

19 GOLD
18 SILVER
22 BRONZE

1st JUNIOR BOYS TEAM KUMITE GOLD

1st & 2nd JUNIOR GIRLS TEAM KUMITE

SILVER & BRONZE

1st SENIOR FEMALE TEAM KUMITE GOLD

1st & 2nd SENIOR MALE TEAM KUMITE

GOLD & SILVER

WELL DONE TO ALL TOYAKWAI KARATE OVERALL WINNERS 115 POINTS