THE VALE karate squad arrived in force at their first local tournament of 2003 when they attended the Maesteg Open on February 2.

Fifty two Vale members took part, many for the first time in open competition, and as expected Vale Karate emerged with the lion's share of the spoils, winning no fewer than 27 trophies, including 12 for first place (seven adult and five junior).

As expected the adult black belt events were won by the Vale's internationals who were using this event as a warm-up for the international rigours ahead.

Current Welsh Governing Body Champion Gareth Reynolds won the Men's Kumite with Gavin Keedwell, the current British Governing Body Under-18, U-55kg champion, earning third place. Gavin had earlier won the Under-18 category.

Nathan Bridges headed a Vale 1-2-3 ahead of Alan Morgans, with Gavin demonstrating his versatility not to mention his stamina by claiming third place.

The Vale also dominated the adult intermediate events for those below brown belt, winning three of the four events on offer, courtesy of Darren Tyson, Tim Hawkins and Bonny Buckle.

Bonny, after winning the Ladies Intermediate Kata event, also managed a second place in the Ladies Intermediate Kumite. All three were entering their first ever tournament.

The teenage events saw first places going to Jessica Morgan who had earlier also earned a second place, to Lisa Green and to Rachel Dixon, another double trophy winner.

Surely Wales' most successful junior under 12 within the Governing Body, Nick Hooper has at the age of ten already won five Welsh Governing Body kata titles.

His only opposition here came from his clubmates with the Vale Junior Squad providing seven of the last eight in the 60-plus contingent of the Under-12 kata event for brown and black belts.

As expected, Nick won with Rhys Davies close behind.

The same category for those below brown belt was an even bigger category with Leah Copeland at only eight earning an excellent second place.

The biggest entries of the day were in The Kumite events for juniors of ten years and below.

In the black and brown belt section Scott Paramore came through several rounds to win his first Open title whilst in the even bigger category below brown belt, the Vale earned second and third from Matthew Johns and Christian Jones.

JUNIOR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The only Sports Council recognised Governing Body for Karate in Wales, the WKGB which has a membership for 40 associations throughout Wales, sent a five-man squad to the Junior European Championships being held in Poland on the weekend of February 14-16.

For the first time the majority of the Welsh squad were from The Vale Karate Organisation - Gareth Reynolds, Gavin Keedwell and Billy Seagrim.

The European Karate Federation encompasses the officially recognised governing bodies of 50 European nations or almost a third of the 168 countries which comprise The World Karate Federation.

To progress past the first round is a major achievement.

Billy Seagrim, an 18-year-old student at Swansea University, who has trained at Vale Karate for the last 12 years, made the Vale and Wales extremely proud by winning Wales' first European Karate Federation Under-21 medal for almost 20 years, a silver, by beating the champions of the Ukraine, France and Slovakia before succumbing to the Russian champion in the final.

For further information on Vale Karate, tel 419701 or email: vale@valekarate.com or visit www.valekarate.com