First karate tournament
Molly competed in her first karate tournament on Saturday. Her dojo was holding a tournament, so it was an easy way to try it out. There ended up being girls from lots of other karate schools there (which meant the place was packed). Molly elected to compete in both Forms (katas) and Sparring.
Here she is doing her kata. It was good enough to tie for first place in her division with a score of 7.47.
She lost the tie breaker, but was still very excited about winning the silver medal. Congratulations, Molly!
In sparring, she had a tough opponent to start.
You get 1 point for a punch, 2 points for a kick, first to 5 points wins. There are 3 judges, which are all sensei’s from different schools. Scoring a point requires confirmation from 2 of the 3 judges.
It was a very tight fight. Towards the end, Molly was losing 4 to 3, and her opponent came close to scoring several times. But then Molly landed an excellent kick, giving her the 5-4 win.
In the gold medal fight, Molly faced another tough opponent with an excellent kick.
She fought well, but ultimately lost.
Molly won the silver medal!
Molly’s a happy champion, even if her smile looks odd with her mouthguard in.
I couldn’t get a picture of her with both her medals there since it was so crowed, but here she is right after we got home.
Congratulations, Molly!
