Journey To Geneva - Part 1

A description of my Journey to the WUMA World Championships in Geneva in 2026

In the march of this year I competed in the WUMA British Championships in Cheltenham England, in this competition i placed first in the U17 Kata, While it sounds impressive it wasn't really. U17 Kata is the first division that should be ran at roughly midday an hour after the competition starts but this time they were running a little bit late, they were waiting on a judge to turn up, who didn't turn up. In the division i was placed with two other competitiors none of whom showed up leaving me to win by default, i only won by turning up. From the British championship I was invited to the Worlds in Geneva in 2026, which leads us to here, I first thought about writing this blog in March after i won the competition but procrastination got to me.

On june 29th I won the WUMA European championship in Open Hand Kata and second in Weapons Kata, I didn't need to compete on that day, i actually was advised to actually not compete but i didn't listen (And it worked out perfectly for me) After winning the British Championship i talked to Grandmaster Richard 'Deadly Dicker' Hopkins the 10th Degree blackbelt and head of WUMA Worldwide and President of WUMA England and he told me "Now that you won today yer on the team, you don't need to come over and compete anymore." While i understand where he comes from, wanting a chance for other people to win i had to keep on turning up, i had to keep increasing my scores.