With the Soke Cup on the Gold Coast in August, our competitors had two big tournaments on the way: the Sunshine Coast Winter Tournament in June and the first Brisbane Chito-Ryu Championships in July.
Sunshine Coast Winter Tournament, 21 June
Held at Kuluin State School, the Winter Tournament was the final selection event for the national kumite teams. Adult and Masters kumite ran as round robins, so every competitor fought everyone in their division.
This was only the second tournament ever run on Taikai, the tournament management software we’ve been developing for the Soke Cup. The first was a small in-house tournament at The Karate Institute in Sydney, who kindly offered to test it first. Taikai was still very much in development, with plenty of improvements along the way and several fixes on the day.
Sunshine Coast Karate finished with 41 podium places: 12 gold, 14 silver and 15 bronze. See the full results.
Brisbane Chito-Ryu Championships, 19 July
The first Brisbane Championships, at Kedron State High School, was the squad’s final dress rehearsal before the Soke Cup. Our competitors came home with 27 podium places: 10 gold, 7 silver and 10 bronze. See the full results.
Although we couldn’t be there on the day because of a family emergency, it was great to see everyone progressing towards the final push for the Soke Cup. Congratulations to Sensei Anthony on successfully running his first tournament as host. We look forward to many more.
Thank you
Tournaments only happen because of the people behind the tables. Thank you to every volunteer, table official, referee and marshal who gave up their weekend. If you took photos or video, please share them with us.
Interested in competing? Our Tournament Squad trains for events like these all year round.