On Sunday it was the adults turn whilst the juniors could relax and support us all.

First up was the Korean Patterns with team coach and student competing against each other. The scores were very close for the top three places with Louise Nelson taking the first place and world champion title. However, second place had to be decided with dragon coach drawing with Germany’s top patterns exponent. Each had to do a different pattern, so the pressure was on. After both competitors had performed they had to line up for the decision with four of the five judges giving the decision to Pete Cook, giving the Dragons a one-two. Next up were the same pair, Louise and Pete as they performed in the Team Kata, taking a well deserved second place.
After all the Kata’s the fighting got under way with guess who...?
.... Louise Nelson!
Louise, who has just turned sixteen was fighting in the –50kg Semi contact destroying every one in front of her to easily take her second world title of the day. Also fighting in the same category was Karen Sutton. She had a great semi finale fight against a fighter from Germany, earning Karen a second place after losing to Dragon team mate Louise. This made yet another one-two for the dragons! Next up was Rachel Muress in the –55kg semi contact fighting well in the finale. Rachel lost against a seasoned fighter from Germany giving Rachel her first second place of the day.
Next up was Louise Nelson (again!) moving up to the –55kg light continuous. Louise was on fire all day with perfect timing. Louise got to the finale and was not to be denied her third world title.
Next up was Rachel Coleman in the master’s semi contact fighting a lady from Italy. Rachel ended up winning by 5 clear points and taking the title of World Champion.
Rachel was then called up for the Light contact section reaching the finals with a very convincing win over a Lady from Poland the finale was an all England match up with the much taller Kelly Derwent, Rachel took the fight to Kelly and was on top until the later part of the fight when she ran out of steam the finale bell went and the decision was one draw one in favour to Kelly giving her the title with Rachel taking second place.

Team Dragon Ladies were then up for the team semi contact with Louise Nelson, Karen Sutton and Rachel Coleman. This was a finale with the England A and Italian teams being tipped to be in the finale. However, Team Dragon put a stop to that with their first two team fights, only needing two of our team to fight as they both won giving the team a win, into the finale against England A. Louise was up first, and the in form Nelson finished the fight in less then 30 seconds.
Next up was Karen, taking the fight to draw until the last few seconds, and losing by one point. This meant that Rachel, who had not needed to fight until now, had to beat the current world champion Kelly Derwent. Rachel had a good battle but lost out, leaving team Dragon with a well deserved second place. Last up for the Ladies was Rachel Muress in the –55kg full contact. She had a hard fight, and after the third and final round the decision went in favour of the Lady from Italy, giving Rachel her second silver of the day. All the Ladies had finished which meant that the Men had to perform - and keep the flag flying for team Dragon.

First up for the Men was Gary Cain in the –60kg Semi contact. Gary was on fire, reaching the final against an old adversary Craig Butterfield. The fight was like a chess game with Craig taking the title, and Gary taking his first trophy of the day.
Next up was Mark Smart fighting for the last time as an intermediate. He started with no expectations, having not won a competition so far. He took the fight to his first opponent, winning his way to the next round. The same result was to take him all the way to the final and win him his first place and world title.
Gary Cain was up next with the –65kg Semi contact. His speed and timing gave him yet another second place. After receiving his second trophy of the day Gary was called up again to fight in the –65kg Light Contact section. This time Gary was not to be refused as he took on a very good fighter from Malta. With his speed he out-pointed the Maltese fighter with a barrage of hand and leg techniques winning him his third trophy and world title.
Callum Thompson was fighting for the first time as an adult in the +90kg light contact section. With his fight against the former world champion from Italy going to a draw, an extra 30 seconds was added. Callum lost by a split decision. He was up again this time in the Semi Contact taking out a fighter from England in the quarter finals. With good timing and speed for such a big lad, his next fight went to the wire and again Callum lost out but had by then done enough to fight off for third place against a fighter from Poland. This fight was all Callum's with the Polish fighter losing out and giving him the third place that he deserved.

The full Contact was called and the first of our two men was called up. "Big Al" aka Alwyn Harris - was fighting against the seasoned Kevin Ludvick from South Africa in the –90kg. Alwyn had the advantage of reach but Kevin had the advantage of a vast experience being the former World Champion. After the third round had finished there was no doubt that Alwyn would have to settle for third place as Kevin went on to take the title. Still, Big Al had a great fight with this, it being only the second time he had entered the ring in full contact.
The next full contact bout was a different matter as Dragon instructor and assistant coach Colin Muress was called up for the –75kg bout only to be told that his fighter had pulled out at the last minute. With another twist to the story, the –80kg World champion Mark 'the Ice Man' Smith was called up, and due to injury his opponent had to pull out. This left two fighters without a fight, so Colin decided to go up a weight to take on the Ice Man. The clash was a great display of defensive and counter attacking from Colin whilst the ice man was trying to use his advantage of weight and power. This fight was going all the way, and after the final bell went the two waited for the result.
Yet another twist was to come as the adjudicator from Italy pointed to Colin as the winner, and then having to then put his hand up for the winner by split decision. The Ice Man regained his World title, with Colin taking a massive round of applause from the watching crowd.

Back to the mats, Pete Cook was up for the semi contact. Despite having sustained a knee injury two weeks prior, Pete had already done some damage in his pattern category, so strapped up decided to give it a go. His first fighter was a team coach from Italy. The two fighters had met before with Pete winning their last fight. The two came on to the mat. The Italian then bowed shook Pete’s hand and walked off, pulling himself out of the competition, leaving Pete bewildered. Moving into the quarter finals, Pete reached the Semi finals and had to face an on form and old adversary Lance Manyer. These two fighters had fought each other many times before, and as usual both went out to win. Most spectators said this should have been the finale, as Lance went into the front. At the end of time Cook scored a point to finish a draw. Extra time had to come into play with the first fighter to reach two clear points to win. Lance took it to 10 points to 9 then it went to 10-10. This bout seemed to go on for ever until Lance scored another point: 11-10. Pete then switched and threw a head kick scoring 2 points making it 11-12. The final score ended with Pete Cook winning 13-15 and taking him into the final. After some first aid from the Doctor, Cook went into the final. This time Pete performed well, but lost out giving him his third second placing of the day.
Last up for the Dragons was Paul Mayfield in the –75kg Light Contact. Paul - tipped to win this tournament - went out with speed timing and strength reaching the final with ease. However the final was a different matter with Paul taking on Malta’s top fighter. This fight had everything, with Paul giving his all against a fighter that just seemed to soak it all up and keep pushing forward. The bell went and the judges' decision went to a split, with the fighter from Malta taking the title, leaving the second place to Paul.

PETE'S COMMENTS:
How do we beat this? We seem to be doing something right and will keep on doing so as we reach for more, we intend to stretch our boundaries out further and push our team harder to achieve more.
On a personal note, I couldn’t be any prouder of my squad, and I would like to thank all the spectators that came with us especially Becky Smart for being the Mother and organiser of the mini bus.
Many thanks to all that sponsored our team.