barking and dagenham

On Thursday 16^th September Kaizen Ryu Karate were asked to be a part of the Barking and Dagenham Community Games – pioneered by social enterprise SportInspired. These festival-like, exciting, fun, and friendly competitions engaged a large number of participants in a range of locally provided sport; from netball, football, hockey, rugby, boccia, volleyball, gymnastics to bmx. The day encouraged fair play and team spirit, whilst keeping with games’ objectives; breaking down barriers between young people and adults, whilst building bridges to non-mainstream and less able-bodied sports. 

A newly refurbished Crystal Palace was the scene of this year’s Balfour Beatty London Youth Games Karate competition. With its good facilities and central location, “The Palace” was an ideal venue for one of the most prestigious events on the Karate calendar.

History has shown that the East London boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Tower Hamlets have all had major success at the games, with these boroughs achieving winning streaks in previous years. 2009 would be another year following the form book.

Redbridge won the outright trophy for the boys’ competition; with Havering and Waltham Forest in 2^nd and 3^rd, while Havering took the girls’ competition comfortably over Redbridge; Richmond coming 3^rd.