Munich vs. London "The Rematch 2009"

British Lions do their country proud

The London representatives put up a brave fight against strong opposition and narrowly missed out on winning the “London versus Munich” trophy last weekend (6^th-9^th March).

Students from Kaizen Ryu Karate, Seitou Ryu Karate, EW Taekwondo and the Silver Dragons Academy worked together to take on opposition drawn from Germany and Austria in point fighting, forms, board breaking and weapons’ forms. The Munich team took a 3 – 0 lead from point fighting into the forms competition in which London fought back gain the lead at 4 – 3. A further three rounds of board breaking levelled the scores at 5 – 5 to force a decider.

The organisers used a random process to work out the format of the deciding bout. With a team of tall kickboxers the Germans were hoping for a point fighting round. Point fighting was pulled out of the hat and London’s 5’ 4” Jay Elmes (Silver Dragons) gave his all against his 6’ plus opponent, losing his contest by a slim margin, and the Munich team took the trophy 6 -5.

The competition organisers were amazed with the London team’s enthusiasm in support, humility in victory and graciousness in defeat. The spirit and comradeship of the British team has left a lasting memory in a corner of Germany and the Coaches from all of the representative clubs are looking forward to returning next year with an even stronger team to take on the challenge.

For more information of the London versus Munich challenge trophy please look up the website www.selfdefense-germany.de and click on the “tournament” link.