European Championships, Spain 2009 Report
By Master Denis

The cream of Europe gathered together in Benidorm, Spain from the 24th -26th. The title of Europe’s best was at stake.

The competition started with the patterns and Steven Arroyo won Gold in the 2nd degree patterns and Dan Farrell gained a bronze. First timers to the team were finding that mistakes were costly as Callum East and Marcela Capaja found out. Jay Hill performed well but a bad draw saw her pitted against Poland, who would go on to get to the final. Samuel Wood went through a few rounds before falling just short of the medal positions. Graham Patterson beat his first challenger before he went up against the 17 time European Champion, the decision was 4-1 against him but the result means that in head to head matches they are tied at 1 apiece as Graham beat his opponent in the 2003 World Championship on his way to being crowned World Champion. Suzanne Main was blatantly robbed as it seems 4 of the judges like high kicks. It didn’t matter whether the kicks were correct, as long as they were high. The team patterns were lost in the quarter finals when a mistimed movement was to prove very costly against the Norwegian team.

In the sparring James Emblin won through to gain bronze in -52kg junior sparring. Mazda Hazzandedah in his first championship fought well but lost to a more experienced competitor. Marcela Capaja had a tough battle against a Finnish opponent and ended up on the wrong end of a close decision. Morgan Da Silva battled against a Polish Junior and although he managed to get his adversary 10 warnings he still lost out.

Regan Lawrance had to move up to the next weight category as somehow the scales he used were not correct so when he weighed in he was over the limit. His first opponent was a boy from Ireland who was considerably heavier than him and Regan managed to accumulate enough warnings to mean he would be giving his opponent 3 points but with seconds remaining he caught Irish lad with a lovely kick to the head. Result 4-0 and a match against the Spanish fighter. With home support against him Regan showed class and easily picked off his opponent scoring on a regular basis. Again 4-0, next up Germany. Again well timed scores give the match to Regan and he progresses to the semi final to meet Slovenia. Accumulation of attempted weight loss for his original division and matches occurring rapidly, fitness played a major part and Regan loss but the bronze was won.

In the senior division current World Champion Matt Cadle went up against a tough fighter from Romania. After being caught with a body kick within the first 30 secs Matt had to chase the fight and was on the wrong end of a decision. England Captain Nicholas Symonds had to face Scotland and after 2 closely contested rounds the decision went against him.

Zak Espi would have to do it the hard way if he wanted to be crowned Champion. In most of his fights he is lighter and shorter against his opponents but the man is a machine that only has forward gears and bout after bout his opponents would amass 10+ warnings. In the quarter finals he went up against the Norwegian fighter that got the decision at the World Cup in Italy with zak’s controversial disqualification. He disposed of him and also his semi final opponent before facing the polish fighter in the Finals. In a bout that went to extra time the decision went against him. The fact that a member of the jury council and high ranking officials who were observing ringside commented that they thought Zak had won says a lot.

Holly Bagshaw made the jump from junior to senior competitor and she found the going tough. Lisa Dennis started in the sparring as one of the favourites for a medal as she had won silver at the World Cup, first up for her was a Russian girl who was made short work of. Next up was the repeat of the World Cup semi final pitting Lisa against a Polish fighter. This was to prove a bruising encounter as both contestants accumulated 2 minus points for heavy contact and when a crushing punch to the face caused a major nose bleed the Polish lady was disqualified. With little time to address the nose injury Lisa was called to battle with a Slovenian and ended up claiming the silver medal.

In the power competition Piotr Capaja had to pull out with 2 days to go due to a hamstring injury and his place was taken by Graham Patterson. With no time to do any extra conditioning Graham put on an excellent show and actually led the competition for a while before he had to settle for bronze. Lisa Dennis had come to Benidorm to do a job in the Power event and she most certainly did that, being the only competitor to break with all 3 techniques. Gold to Lisa, to add to the silver. With these 2 great performances in the individual power event, it boded well for the team event.

First up were the men and after taking an early lead they had to sit and watch after country by country went up and tried to beat England’s score. 3 Countries tied the score so there was a 4 country play off to decide the medals. Knife hand was pulled out of the hat and along with Finland, England were the only other country to break; this was achieved by Graham, leaving Germany and Romania to collect bronze. The punch was pulled out as the next eliminator and the Finnish Competitor bent both boards to collect 2 points. Up stepped Piotr to gain maximum points and the Gold for England with a magnificent break, bearing in mind that only 2 competitors out of nearly 40 had managed to break with the Punch. It was the ladies turn next and Suzanne Main smashed thru the knife hand before Lisa Dennis done the same to the side kick, she was the only lady out of 40 who broke with the side kick, Yvonne Wilcox stepped up to do the turning kick but was unsuccessful with her attempt. Once again it left the ladies awaiting the results of the other teams. This time just Romania and England contested the main prize and as soon as side kick was drawn out of the hat the Gold medal was ours. Lisa once again proved she was a class above the other competitors by going thru the boards easily and the Romanian didn’t dent them. The junior male power team managed to secure another bronze medal and the ladies junior team performed admirably to get bronze in team special technique.

In the team sparring category we had 3 teams competing, they were Male Junior and senior and female junior. The senior team had a tough draw against Slovenia and ended up losing 3-1. Similar score line happened in the junior team as they had to go up against the Polish team. Through injury and exams the junior team did not have a full strength team out but performed admirably well. The junior ladies had a tough draw against Russia, but with good tactical sparring the match was won. In the quarter-final Spain were the opposition but once again sacrifices were made and the team emerged victorious to set up a semi with Poland. Against bigger opposition the girls found it hard and had to settle for bronze.