KEN-BU-KAN’S Alex Little Celebrates winning GOLD in his first All Styles Southern Region Team Championships
 

Alex Little for Ken-Bu-Kan, was part of the All Styles Southern Region Junior Team, who celebrated after retaining their Junior Regional title for the third year.  The team took four golds out of the six events that were contested, against the other two regions, Northern and Midlands. 

The Kata categories were first with the Southern team taking Gold in the Boys event, whilst the Girls were beaten by the Northern team.  Immediately after were the Kumite events for Boys and Girls 12-13 and 14-15 years, which were arranged as a round-robin event.  In the 12-13 years category, both the Boys and Girls secured Gold to take the Southern Region to three Golds out of the four events completed. 

In the 14-15 years category, the girl’s team lost out on another Gold to the Midlands team, which was the only team Kumite defeat for the Southern team.  Finally, the boy’s 14-15 years team were in action, with Ken-Bu-Kan’s Alex little in action for the team.  The first bout was against the Northern team, and Higashi’s James Witt securing a 3-0 win.  Next up was Alex Sell who was unable to beat his Northern opponent and suffered a 1-0 loss.  The third athlete was Ben Broom who secured a convincing 5-1 victory making in 2 wins to 1 for the Southern team.  Alex Little was next and faced a much taller and heavier opponent.  Alex lost 4 points very early in the bout, but managed to stay composed and get some rhythm to his attacking moves.  His opponent was being pressed by Alex and began giving away penalties, which brought the score back to 4-3 with only 10 seconds to go.  Alex made a last second attack but was unable to hit his target, so the scored remained 4-3 and all level at 2 wins each.  Last competitor was Aaron John, who managed to secure a 3-0 victory for the Southern team. 

Next opponents were the Midlands team.  Again, James Witt fought first and met his match after his much smaller opponent managed to follow up on James’ Jodan Mawashigeri to score his own.  James finally managed to use his height advantage over his opponent to score another Jodan kick to win 6-3.  Next was Ben Broom after the Southern team had a reshuffle in their team order.  In the final few seconds, Ben was able to score and win his bout 4-3, making it 2 wins to 0 for the Southern team.  The third athlete was Harry Cannon, who was a reserve member against the Northern team.  Harry was losing 5-1 with less than 20 seconds on the clock, but managed to score 5 points in a row to secure a 6-5 win, sealing the win for the Southern region team with 3 wins to 0.  This win meant that the final athletes, Alex Little, Alex Sell and Aaron John didn’t take part in this match. 

Alex Little celebrated with his team and will no doubt represent the Southern Region for many more events in his sporting career.