The final Sunshine Coast tournament for this was a team challenge friendship tournament.  Held at Sunshine Coast Grammar School, Sunday, 6th September 2015.  This was our biggest tournament of the year, with a total of 6 teams (of up to 15 members) entered.  There were 3 teams from Maroochydore dojo, 1 team from Pacific Paradise Dojo (with a few ring ins), plus 2 teams from the Gold Coast.  Each competitor earned points for each event entered, plus extra points were earned for all top 3 places.

The winning team was Karate Train, lead by Bailey Keefe.

Tournament Champions

• Little Champion – Van Topham
• Junior Champion – Renae Saunders
• Senior Champion – Raphael Borleis

Full result list is available for download (PDF 367KB).

With only one tournament to go, the QLD tournament circuit season rankings are now getting exciting.  After round 5, the top 5 positions are as follows:

1. Bailey Keefe (79 points)
2. Klaudia Caston (70 points)
3. Luke Marriott (59 points)
4. Renae Saunders (53 points)
5. Jack Graham (42 points)
   Kazumi Tominaga (42 points)
   Luke Jones (42 points)

Download a full list of the 2015 QLD Tournament Circuit Season Rankings (after round 5) – PDF downlaod, 118KB.

A huge congratulations to all of the first time competitors.  A big thank you to volunteers, officials and supporters.  Especially a big thank you to Jane Graham for once again taking some great photos.  There are a few photos below, but be sure to check out all the photos on her facebook page

Jane Graham Karate Photography

Once again a huge thank you to all volunteers for making today’s Sunshine Coast tournament such a great success (Sunday, 14th June 2015).  Lots of great competition, demonstration, new competitors stepping up, new judges getting some experience.

Well done competitors and thank you to parents and supporters.

Congratulations to our tournament champions.

• Junior Champion – Bailey Keefe (Sunshine Coast)
• Senior Champion – Raphael Borleis (Sunshine Coast)

Full results – 2015 QLD Chito-Ryu Tournament Circuit – Round 3 Results (PDF).

And – 2015 season rankings after round 3 (PDF).

Next tournament will be the QLD state titles on the Gold Coast, 9th August.  State titles will be double points.

Here are a few photos we managed to get throughout the day in between refereeing duties.  It’s days like these we really miss having Jane around with the amazing job she does with photography.  More photos available on the SCK facebook page.

Last weekend saw the running of our first tournament for the year.  Being was round 1 of the 2015 QLD Chito-Ryu Karate Tournament Circuit at Sunshine Coast Grammar School, Sunday 15th March.  While this was a relatively small tournament in terms of competitor numbers it was great to see that the standard of competition was still high and continuing to improve.

Little champions patiently waiting for their turn at kata

As always a big thank you to all of the officials, volunteers and competitors who made the event possible.  There is an incredible amount of hours of work and preparation that goes into running every tournament from everyone involved, so THANK YOU.

Unfortunately on the day of the tournament, there were a few errors made with presentations and also the running of one of the kumite divisions.  Some trophies have been re-issued to the correct people and there is still one more to do for one of the Gold Coast competitors.  We never like to see this kind of mistake, but unfortunately it does happen from time to time.  From an organisational point of view we would once again like to apologise to those who were effected.

Now, the part you were waiting for….

• Round 1 – Tournament Results (Sunshine Coast – 15 Mar 2015)
• 2015 QLD Chito-Ryu Karate tournament circuit rankings – After Round 1

Junior tournament champion – Van Topham (SC dojo), photo below
Senior tournament champion – Klaudia Caston (SC dojo)

Please note, the junior tournament champion cup was initially awarded to the wrong competitor due to a mix up of presentations of one of the individual kumite divisions.  But thankfully it was corrected and awarded to the correct person.  Well done Van, placing first in both individual kata and individual kumite, also on the winning team for team kata.

Once again thank you to everyone involved in the tournament.  Here a few pictures to enjoy.  Once again thank you to Jane Graham for these wonderful photos.  I believe she’s got lots more still to come, one they are uploaded to facebook, we’ll share the appropriate link.

One last reminder, round 2 tournament will be coming up Sun 3 May on the Gold Coast.  Entry forms are now available from the dojo.

Bailey Keefe – performing “Bassai”

Junior Kumite action

Kobe Marriott – kata performance

Tiahni Eley in action

Junior Tournament Champion – Van Topham

Congratulations to all members for Sunshine Coast & Gold Coast dojos who competed at today’s team challenge tournament.  This was our final tournament of the year and the 5th round of the QLD Chito-Ryu Karate Tournament circuit.

This year we have seen a big step up in the level of organisation of our local tournaments and this is largely due to the increase participation of seniors, members and parent volunteers.  A big part of this is thanks to the work of our tournament co-ordinator, Jodie Marriott who has been responsible for organising volunteers for all of our tournaments this year.

Running a tournament is certainly not a one person job, but especially with this tournament, we would also like to thank Rod Jones for his contributions, coordinating setup and pack up, doing event marshalling (with the help of his son Luc and a few others), covering first aid today and also making some really yummy sandwiches to feed our volunteers at lunch time.  And I almost forgot, Rod was also team captain for “Mojo From The Dojo” and competing himself… amazing!

Today’s tournament was a great fun day with 5 teams (4 from the Sunshine Coast and 1 from the Gold Coast).  But it wasn’t just great fun, there was also some very spirited competition too.

All competitors earned points for their teams today and competition was very close.  But in the end, only one team could be crowned the winners.  Well done to the “Tsuyoi Tigers” from the Gold Coast, who were the champion team today.

Full results are now available for download:  2014-10-19-tournament-results

Tournament champion trophies were awarded for top junior and senior competitor who performed best in both individual kata and individual kumite in their respective divisions.

Senior Tournament Champion – Jack Graham (1st kumite, 2nd kata)
Junior Tournament Champion – Bailey Keefe (1st kata, 1st kumite)

Also, special mention to Kazumi Tominaga who also placed 1st kumite, 2nd kata.  With only one winner for the tournament champion, the only way we could split it was to look at who had the biggest divisions, and today it was Jack, well done.

And as this was our final tournament of the year, it’s time to announce the season champion for the 2014 QLD Chito-Ryu Karate Tournament Circuit.

Congratulations – Luke Marriott (Sunshine Coast).

See the full list of the 2014 QLD Rankings to see where you are ranked.

Now, we get to have a few months rest, until the tournament season starts again early next year, as we start forming a squad, training and competing as we work together towards the 2016 Soke Cup to be held in Kumamoto, Japan.

Once again, our resident professional photographer, Jane Graham has taken some great photos, there are a few showing that she’s posted on facebook already, but I have a feeling there will be lots more.  I’ll update photos below soon.  Here are a few to get started.