Hayley Beth Rowlands will be competing this weekend at the 1st EFKO European Championships, in Antwerp, Belgium.
Fresh from her good form of current KWU European Champion, 2nd place 2019 British Open, and silver place at the recent KWU World Championships, Hayley will be hoping for success, and secure a place to fight in the WFKO’s World Championships in Japan, later this year.
Live streaming of the tournament can be found here
We wish her the very best of luck.
OSU!
Emma taking the fight to Ficks (IFK Russia) in the final match
The KWU held the 4th World Championships in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan on 7-8th December in a hotly contested and high-level competition.
Emma Markwell, having gained silver at the previous three champioships, finally took gold and the title of World Champion in the -65kg class, in an impressive display over 2 days beating her final opponent from Russia in an aggresive and tough match.
Congratulations to Sensei Emma, our World Champion!
Hayley Beth Rowlands battled her way through 2 days to gain a very well deserved silver place in her strong -5okg category.
Congratulations to Senpai Hayley on her first world podium placing.
On the 18-19th May, Ashley Black and Rhys Meredith from Crawley and Mountain Ash dojos respectively, represented the BKK as part of a unified Team GB alongside two members invited from the IKK (Callum Chapman and Harry Clemo), both regular England and GB squad training attendees.
[L-R] Back Row - Wai Cheung, Meidi Divash, Norman King, Andrew Turner, Alex Kerrigan, David Pickthall, Lia Howlett, Chris Davis
Front Row - Callum Chapman (IKK), Ashley Black, Rhys Meredith, Harry Clemo (IKK)
Both Ashley Black and Harry Clemo scored waza aris in their quarter final bouts to advance to the semi finals. Both lost out in the semi-finals to Russian national champions. There was more top level experience for Rhys Meredith and Callum Chapman who had tough bouts, and can feel pleased with their performances. Twenty seven countries took part and it was also great to have such a strong judging team from the UK.
Fighters from the BKK, as KWU representatives, and fighters from IKK and EMAR representing a unified Team GB attending the Kyokushin World Union’s (KWU’) 6th World Youth and 2nd European Adult Championships in Varna, Bulgaria on the 7th-9th December 2018.
This was a landmark occasion for the BKK in taking U16 competitors to a contact-based tournament, and we’re pretty sure the handful of parents that travelled with the team were more nervous than the squad.
The adult team provided high hopes of podiums with experience and consistency at European level with Luke Baldwin, Emma Markwell and Hayley-Beth Rowlands flying the flag.
3 days of tournament fighting with over 700 competitors saw very high-levels at all ages.
Our U18 team all had tough first round draws which was to be expected at such a prestigious championships; Ashley Black’s first taste at World level drew a strong fighter from Armenia, Mia Morgan’s opponent from Poland, Russian’s for Holly Harvey and Charlie Denton, Luke Sabey’s dream draw from Japan, and Rhys Meredith making it all the way through to the quarter finals beating opponents from Belarus and Romania, missing out on a semi final place to the eventual winner from Russia. IKK GB representatives Callum and Harry had tough draws from Bulgaria and Kazakhstan respectively.
With relative inexperience amongst our U18s at such a high standard of competition, all without exception showed determination and spirit on the mats, and conducted themselves commendably off the mats, representing the country and BKK proudly.
The Adult tournament was equally tough, and although pitched at European level, categories saw multiple World Champions on display vying for the KWU European title in only its second edition of the championships.
Luke Baldwin was drawn against former British Open champion and current KWU World Champion, Drodz from Russia who Luke had previously fought at K2 in Crawley. An improved performance from Luke but ultimately Drodz proved too powerful over 2 mins.
Emma Markwell looked strong, and full of conviction on her way to the semi finals where she met and took the fight to Shemina, her Russian opponent she’d fought earlier in the year at the IFK European Tournament in Armenia. Emma put Shemina on the back foot early in the round with combinations, and strong body and low kicks, keeping her off balance. It was clear the early onslaught and aggresion took Shemina by surprise, but she did enough to rally and bring about a draw going into the first extension.
Both looked to take mat centre at the start of the second round; strong chest punches and knees from Shemina saw Emma increase her own punch count and knee combinations as well continuing to deliver heavy low kicks unbalancing her opponent on a number of occasions. As the fight headed into final third, Emma increased her pace forcing Shemina to match her. Fighting to hold the centre of the mat, both fighters matched each other, although Emma’s low kicks clearly causing damage on her opponent.
With both fighters ready for a second extension and encho-sen, three judges unexpectedly raised flags for the Russian. Delight for Shemina who’s leg was visibly damaged after the fight, it was a solid but disappointing and nevertheless solid bronze medal performance for Emma.
Hayley-Beth Rowlands reached her first career major tournament final, with stoppages by punches and ushiro geri, and a commanding semi-final flags decision against Ukraine and Russia fighters respectively, setting up the final against Tsakiri of Greece.
Any signs of nerves were gone early in the fight as Hayley set about stemming her opponent’s aggressive start with stiff punches and hard leg kicks of her own. With a high-pace style of fighting, Hayley took control using angles to keep Tsakiri off balance, throwing direct and hook punches coupled with chudan mawashis and hizas to wear her opponent down. An attempted ushiro mawashi geri came close to connecting but for her loss of balance.
As much as Tsakiri tried to counter attack, Hayley was the clear aggressor in ascendance not giving her opponent any space or time to work. She was able to use her technical and strength superiority to continually move forwards, driving the Greek out of bounds in the final seconds of the round.
A unanimous decision after 3 mins meant Hayley deservedly became the -50kg KWU European Champion, and award for Best Female Technician.
The BKK is set to host its 42nd British Open on Saturday 6th October 2018 at K2, Crawley in what will be an absolute hotbed of Kyokushin fighting elite and talent.
Year on year we see an increase in standard at our championships, presently there are 23 organisations from 22 countries participating in this years 42nd edition of the British Open. Here we look at some of the potential favourites and also at our BKK entries in the Cup of Europe Open categories.
Current champion and Spanish favourite Dani Redondo is looking to take his third Crown but will have some stiff opposition with some very strong Russians including last years runner up Anton Adushkevich from Gazprom team and KWU Varna Cup Champion Maksim Voitov. Also look out for Lithuanian Champion Jonas Enimontas.
Russia will once again have a big say in where the crown goes this year with KWU World Champions Alexandre Drozd and Victor Belyaev both vying for the title but there is some great opposition from around the globe with both last years 3rd place winners crowd favourite Clai Henry from the USA, and Zsolt Zsiga of Hungary looking to go one further and make the final. Also look out for Romanian kicker Catalin Mocanu who should excite with his fast aggressive style.
2018 Champ Aleksandr Karshigeev also looks for a 3rd crown but teammate Vitalii Ishakneli will want to add to his IFK World and European titles. With some many good heavyweights its hard to pick only a few favourites but look out for Euro champs JP Jacquot of France and Eventas Guzaukas. Also we have two top fighters doing it for the over 40’s with former World Champion Samson Muripo coming all the way from Zimbabwe and multi time Euro champ Pablo Estensoro Spain
As Womens events go from strength to strength six time Champion Emma Markwell will look at this division and see it packed with depth. Her opponent last year Teona gazdeliani is back as a KWU World Champion, IFK World Champs runner up Rima Artemova also wants to avenge her 2014 loss to Markwell. WKO new European golden girl Skaiste Venckute will hope her high workrate can take her far and hard punching Alina Polishchuk of Russia will fancy her chances of gold. Can last years semi finalist Hayley Beth Rowlands push for a higher ranking this year.
Another division packed with quality and who can pick a winner from KWU and IFK World Champion Agata Winiarska, KWU World Champion Maria Papdopoulou, Svetlana Tuchkova former IFK World Champion, Marta Lubos Poland and Sara Hagge Sweden both European Champions.
With such a packed field, we are looking at one of the most exciting tournaments to date.
Emma Markwell and Hayley-Beth Rowlands, and Aneta Meskauskiene from Ireland Karate Kyokushinkai will be competing and representing the IFK/ KWU at this weekend's World Weight Tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan (1st-2nd July).
