November 16th 2009 - Journey Home

8.00am: Well the team are on the team bus heading for the airport now. Last night there squad did not go to the after party, 'no golds, no party'. It was on grounds of safety really as the tickets were being sold openly so anyone could have gone and the priority was to look after the squad, especially the 14-15 year olds. Instead a heavily chaperoned squad headed for the city centre's most popular tourist attracton, McDonalds!

The standard at these championships has been very high, in my opinion, unlike football, the World championsips are a lot stronger than the Europeans. Countries like Peru, Brazil, USA and of course Japan all had strong teams which you wouldn't get at a Europeans. The English are at the level able to compete here with some of them doing really well. There were many near misses though with votes against the team in split decisions, many losing by a single point, etc. but the team didn't seem to get much like with many just missing out on repechage too.

The squad was strong with many capable of medalling but not this time round. They bonded well, supported each other and beleived in each other. After this, not much should phase them now.

The coaches have done a great job and got to know the kids well and know what they are capable of. They worked so hard over the course of these championsips running around the place coaching the athletes and of course at pre-training too. I think everyone has made notes on how to improve and have each gained something from this experience.

A final blog of these championships will be added soon.

On behalf of the English Karate Federations' Delegation, Referees and Squad a big thank you to all the supporters, families and friends for all your messages of support, to Jelinet for web coverage, Chikara Ltd and OPRO for sponsorship, we hope you enjoyed the coverage of these championships. Next stop Junior European Championships Izmir Turkey 5-7 February 2010. Oss!

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