Sunday 19th September was the big day that many of the students from Sil Lum Kune / Sil Lum Hark Fu Mun had been preparing for.

This day was the British Championships in Derby. Months of practice, training, sweat and hard work had all been leading up to this.

We arrived at the large sports centre (Moore Way Sports complex) at about 9.30am to register and weigh in. The hall had 3 large matted areas and a big seating area for spectators which our 43 competitors and their families soon started to fill.

First event to start the day off was the Traditional Pushing Hands where two opponents try to push, pull and generally unbalance each other and so making them move, or trip over. We had four students doing the Pushing Hands as we had only recently introduced this discipline into our clubs so many students were still new and unsure of it. As the categories got under way our students started to prove themselves and finished with two gold’s and two silver medals.

  
Cameron Burkinshaw = Gold & Callum Burkinshaw = Silver           Max McGee = Gold & Callum Samra = Silver


These results in the Pushing-Hands section was a great start to the day and helped morale in the club squad no end.

Next events were the Qingda sparring categories which had the usual punching and kicking of other styles, but also included grabs, throws, sweeps, takedowns and push outs to score points as well. All three mats were used to cater for all the age and weight categories for this sparring. We had fighters on several mats at once and many of the older members helped out coaching the younger ones. Several of the adult members of the club who weren’t competing had been asked to come along and be officials and so help the day run smoothly.

Shuai Chiao is stand-up wrestling and is normally reserved for adults only. This year the BCCMA staged a junior exhibition match which included two of our clubs leading lights of the future. These youngsters were also brothers, Cameron and Callum Burkinshaw. They both performed a great skillful exhibition fight which hopefully will encourage more of the younger members to take up this event in the future.

As the day came to an end it was clear that Sil Lum Kune had done very well over all. Medals to our club were 17 1st place Gold’s (17 British Champions), 17 silver medals and 8 Bronze medals.

As Chief Instructor, I am truly pleased with the hard work and training of all the students before this competition, which has proved to be worth while by the results they deservedly achieved. Well done, they are our future.

We have classes in Nuneaton, Coventry, Hinckley, Baddesley etc with a full time purpose built academy in the town centre of Bedworth. Anyone interested in martial arts please contact Paul on 07973 421860 for further details.