3rd IFK U18 World Tournament, Crawley, United Kingdom 2011
The 3rd IFK Under 18 Tournament started in spectacular fashion with the 16 participating countries lined up for the opening speeches, which was highlighted by the emotional promotion of Hanshi Steve Arneil to 10th Dan.
Team Clicker
It was straight onto the action with the team event of the under-16 Clicker fighters. The teams were put into two blocks with Poland defeating France but were then beaten by Great Britain B and Hungary defeated USA but fell at the next hurdle to Switzerland. The Block 1 semi-final was a tense affair going fight for fight until Great Britain B went through 3-2.
In Block 2 Norway secured a semi-final place defeating Ireland and Great Britain A cruised past Israel who had previously put out Australia. In the Semi final Great Britain A were too strong defeating Norway 5-0.
Individual Clicker
Boys
The early rounds were dominated by the British and Swiss fighters with the top 8 all comprising of these boys who were clearly the most experienced and skilled at this type of fighting.
Dan Small (GB) defeated his countryman Stuart Lee in the first bout then Josh Mays used his movement to keep Manual Teller (Switzerland) on the back foot.
Jordan Da Costa (GB) eased past Simon Zurfluh (Switzerland) and in another all GB affair Jordan Prescott pipped Blake Collins to make up the final four.
Semi Finals
Dan Small eased ahead of Josh Mays early on and every time Mays got back into it, Small would step it up to finally get ahead to take victory at the end of the buzzer.
Jordan Da Costa kept Jordan Prescott on the back foot and showed nice movement to defeat his teammate in the all GB affair.
Final
Club-mates Small and Da Costa put on a good show. Small cemented the win, matching his sister in 2006 catching Da Costa with a punch to the back and a very well controlled spinning back kick, to take the title.
Girls
The quarter finals were a far more mixed affair with Haley Rowlands (GB) defeating Dominka Kowaliw (Poland), Rowland’s experience took its toll on the Polish girl by the end of the fight.
Tanya Gabathuler (Switzerland) beat Evy Bjornestad (Norway) to set up the first semi-final. Rowlands defeated Gabathuler to move on to the final.
Block B saw Stephanie Williams (GB) beaten by Andrea Gansner (Switzerland) and Christel Ingebretsen (Norway) beat Paulina Kaczor (Poland) to make up the second semi-final. Gansner proved too strong for her semi-final opponent and moved through to the final.
Final
In a very close final, Rowlands and Gansner swapped point for point until the last 30 seconds when Rowlands managed to gain composure and ease through to a unanimous victory.
Kyokushin Rules
Boys Lightweight
Nigamaev (Russia) looked under a great deal of pressure against Belorussian Yauseyeu but scored ippon with a cracking chudan mawashi geri. Then he stopped Thomas (GB) with a punch within 30 seconds.
Shaheen (Kuwait) seemed to be in control of a long bout and hurt Dallavara who produced a great turn around to win the fight with a waza ari to the body. Ozga (GB) was a different proposition though with good movement and picked off Dallavara before scoring ippon with a well timed chudan mae geri.
