FIGHTING SPIRIT
Last Semester, Bath University Kickboxing showed fighting spirit by competing in 2 competitions. In November Bath University hosted the PUMA British championships, which is an annual event for both Taewkando and Kickboxing martial artists from across the South of England. Our own Kickboxing club showed support for the event by sending 18 people to compete in both point-stop and continuous categories of sparring.
The club was particularly successful at this event, coming away with 6 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 5 bronze medals. This achievement was especially commendable since only 2 days previously Bath University Kickboxing held the biggest grading in the clubs history with almost 60 people attaining new belts. This meant that for most competitors, they would be fighting in a higher belt grade category than that they would have done two days before!
As this was the first competition of the year (and the first ever fight for many), it was great to see Bath Kickboxing walk away with so many medals.
GOLD MEDALISTS
Jamie Richards
Julia Reed
Anna Ross
Robert Dinsey
Matt Sellick
Ahmed Suleiman
SILVER MEDALISTS
Nicola Blackwood
Lucy Armstrong
Vito Tomasi
Patrick F. Brewer
Anthony Shum
BRONZE MEDALISTS
Rachel spry
Jonnie White
Peter Hachfeld
Dan Parker
Xiaoyu Zhang
RUNNERS UP
Chris Bolus
Sarah Goring
Another major event in the Kickboxing calendar was the bi-annual varsity Fight Night against Loughborough University. It was held in December at Loughborough to a crowd of nearly 600 people. There were 13 semi-contact fights (worth 1 point each for a two minute round) and 2 full contact fights (worth 2 points each with two 2 minute rounds). Bath pulled out all the stops this year to train for the event, with 4 training sessions a week! Bath Kickboxers won 8 fights and Loughborough 7, but unfortunately due to more experienced full contact fighters, Loughborough triumphed 9-8. On May the 7th Bath will host a re-match against Loughborough and this time our fighters will be out for revenge.
If you are interested in trying out Kickboxing for yourself, this Semester we will be offering a reduced membership of just £10 for the rest of the year offering 3 sessions a week! If you have any questions please feel free to email the club (see Bath Student for details).