History Made

Wakefield Tomiki Aikido Club Junior Team continued their winning run with a 4th successive club championship win in the Junior National Championship held on the 19th July 2008 in Sheffield.

The Wakefield team was not the largest team in the competition, being outnumbered by some of the other clubs in attendance making the win even more remarkable. In particular, the club had no entrants in the under 16s age group kata, tanto and ninindori events.

Age Group	Result
Under 8's	Silver Medal	Randori-no-Kata
	Silver Medal	Tanto Kakarigeiko
	Silver Medal	Ninindori
	Best Individual Trophy
Under 10's	Silver Medal	Randori-no-Kata
	Silver Medal	Tanto Kakarigeiko
	Silver Medal	Ninindori
	Best Individual Trophy
Under 12's	Gold Medal	Randori-no-Kata
	Gold Medal	Tanto Kakarigeiko
	Gold Medal	Ninindori
	Bronze Medal	Randori-no-Kata
	Team Trophy
Under 14's	Bronze Medal	Randori-no-Kata
	Bronze Medal	Tanto Kakarigeiko
	Bronze Medal	Ninindori
Under 16's	Gold Medal	Open Kata
Overall	Team Champions Trophy

Despite missing out on medals Hannah Miller won the under 8s trophy for best individual and Yolande Shaw won the under 10s trophy for best individual in their first competition demonstrating the effort and enthusiasm they put in throughout the day.

The under 12 category continued to be dominated by Wakefield with 3 gold and a bronze medal leading to the under 12 team trophy.

The under 14s won 3 bronze medals in a very competitive age group with a high standard of aikido being demonstrated by all clubs.

Apart from Wakefields success in the open kata, the under 16s competition was dominated by Harrogate and Wharfedale, stealing enough points from the 3 top placed clubs to allow Wakefield to sneak home to their 4th successive win. The trophy was presented to Charlotte Thomas, Team Captain.

Once again Wakefield has shown it is still the club to beat and although not all members of the team were lucky enough to win individual medals, the high standard of aikido they demonstrated and the experience of competition will stand them in good stead for future medal wins. This will ensure that the Wakefield Junior Club continues to go from strength to strength and will be a formidable force to reckon with well into the future.

The full results are listed below and a gallery of photographs of the team in action can be viewed by clicking on the following link (Junior Open Gallery ).

Wakefield entered 3 teams into the under 16 open kata, 2 of which made the final with the third narrowly missing out. The open kata silver medal winners from the last competition, Luke Fountain (age 12) and Daniel Barker (age 11), were determined not to settle for anything less than gold and put on an impressive demonstration of the first 18 techniques of the Dai Yon to raptuous applause. Members of the judging panel later commented on the high standard of the kata. This was enough to secure the gold medal against the odds, easily beating 14 & 15 year old entrants with higher grades.