Introducing Leeds Shotokan Karate Club

MONDAY - All Grades

7 Year Olds Upwards: 630pm-8pm
The Memorial Ground, Chelwood Drive, Leeds

LS8 2AT

WEDNESDAY - All Grades

7 Year Olds Upwards: 630pm-8pm
The Memorial Ground, Chelwood Drive, Leeds

LS8 2AT

THURSDAY - All Grades

7 Year Olds Upwards: 630pm-745pm

Roundhay Parochial Hall, Fitzroy Drive,

Leeds

LS8 4AB

Latest News

KUGB Northern Region Championships

5 Oct 2025

Our competition squad was once again back in action as we had a fantastic day at the KUGB Northern Region Championships. Every single competitor really raised their game and represented the club exceptionally!

The Senior Male Team won the team kumite event, an excellent achievement meaning that Leeds have now won this event in 8 of the last 9 competitions, an absolutely outstanding achievement.

Jade and Ethan battled it out in the final of the senior men’s Kumite with Jade narrowly pipping Ethan to the title by one score. Both of these men continue to inspire and set an amazing example to our younger competitors.

Olivia Bakun continued her dominant year in the Girls Kumite 10-11 year old category with another dominant victory. Olivia has now won the Northern Regions, the Shotokan Cup (British individuals) and The Nationals, as well as passing her black belt grading, what a year she is having!

Aarush Kumar fought brilliantly in the boys Kumite 10-11 category narrowly missing out on the title in a closely fought final. Aarush has worked incredibly hard this year and really deserves his success. Clark Wan and Zayyan Miah also competed in this even and both demonstrated excellent skill and timing. Special should out to Zayyan who was fighting for us for the very first time, his bravery and attitude were fantastic, and we really hope he will continue to represent us!

In the Kata events Ethan Brown was entered in the Senior Male Kata category and put in his usual highly technical performance to make the finals. His finals kata was performed to a very high standard to bring back the silver medal, well done Ethan.

Mayon Jayawickrama made his way to the final of the Childrens Black Belt category where he was extremely unlucky not to place higher. He can be proud of the bronze medal he achieved and can certainly be proud of the kata he performed in the final.

Ruben Matharu, his speed and power on full display as he took home a well earned bronze medal in the children’s Brown belt kata event.

As if the above wasn’t enough, Jade was awarded the Sensei Randy Williams memorial trophy for best overall competitor. The trophy remembers our former chief instructor who was a titan of British Karate, immensely respected throughout the Karate world. We still compete with Sensei Randy on our badge so it fills us with pride to have this trophy coming back to Leeds, and we are sure Sensei Randy would be very proud of everyone today!

🥇 Leeds Shotokan - Senior Male Team Kumite

🥇 Jade Stapleton-Smith - Senior Male Individual Kumite

🥇 Olivia Bakun - Girls 10-11 Kumite

🥈 Ethan Armstrong - Senior Male Individual Kumite

🥈 Ethan Brown - Senior Male Kata

🥈 Aarush Kumar - Boys 10-11 Kumite

🥉 Mayon Jayawickrama - Children’s Dan Grade Kata

🥉 Ruben Matharu - Children’s Brown Belt Kata

Dan Grading Success

4 Oct 2025

We are delighted to announce that Sensei Andy Bolton was succesful in his Yondan (4th Dan) Grading this weekend.

After an intense two hour training sessions with some of the highest grades in the country, Andy performed excellently well in from of the KUGB Dan Grading committee to hear the much coveted "Pass".

It is a testament to years of hard work, arriving to sessions early to practice, practicing outside of the dojo to get to this point, and should be inspiring to everyone in the dojo!

Congratulations Andy - everyone at Leeds Shotokan is incredibly proud of you!

World Shotokan Karate Association Championships

19-21 Sept 2025

This weekend saw 3 of our members join up with the rest of the KUGB England team as they jetted off to Spain for the 2025 World Shotokan Karate Association Championships.

For Mayon Jayawickrama this was his first time competing at a world championship and he was keen to follow up to his success at last year’s Europeans.

Ethan Armstrong and Jade Stapleton-Smith are now 2 of the most experienced and senior members of the England team, and we were all hoping for some good news after the pair battled it out in the finals of last years European championships.

Mayon is one of a very small group in the England set up who competes in both the Kata and Kumite events and as Saturday brought his chance to showcase his skills he did not disappoint!

He performed an excellent Kata and was unlucky to be eliminated, but he didn’t let that deter him. In the Kumite Mayon fought with grit, determination and skill to make it all the way through to the finals. After an excellent victory in the semi-finals, he was just pipped to the championship by a very strong opponent. To come away with a silver medal at his first ever world championships is an unbelievable achievement – congratulations Mayon – we are very proud!

As always Sunday was the senior events – with Jade and Ethan both ready to put on strong performances.

Jade fought superbly well, winning his first fight fairly routinely before coming up against an excellent American competitor who has appeared in many world championship finals. The match went back and forth and into an extension. Even after the extension the fighters couldn’t be split by the judges and eventually the referee awarded the victory to Jade’s opponent in an extremely close decision.

Ethan managed to use his usual confidence and style to work his way through the rounds, scoring some excellent points on the way. As he approached the final of his matt, in another fight he looked sure to take the victory in, he was unfortunately disqualified for a technique that was deemed too hard.

Both men continued their excellent form whilst fighting in the team event. England were the defending champions for this event following their victory in Portugal 2 years ago, so expectations were high. The whole team fought sensationally well to eliminate the teams from Portugal, Italy, and Brazil. Sadly, in a closely contested final the men had to settle for the Silver medal on this occasion as they lost by 3 fights to 2 against and excellent team from Czechia.

We are immensely proud of our athletes representing out club and their country at this level. It is years of dedication that has brought them to this point and we look forward to seeing what they can do at the European championships at the end of November.

Everyone sends out huge congratulations to the England team and medal winners for their performances over the weekend.