News/Media

Check back regularly for up-to-date information on Amy's progress.


21/02/10 Senior European Selection

Yesterday Amy attained the final position in the England squad for the Senior European Championships in Athens, Greece in May.   Althougth the majority of the squad had already been selected, Amy's chosen divison, -68kg female kumite, had yet to be decided.  After heading to Yorkshire, Amy went into the selections in good spirits and hoping to attain the final position in the squad.  Out of five fights, four against other opponents in the same weight category, Amy secured five wins.  This subsequently secured Amy the spot she had hoped for, for which she was delighted.

20/10/09 On Route to Recovery

After a disasterous few months of illness, Amy Thomason is finally recovering and getting back to normal energy levels.  Diagnosed with Glandular Fever, Thomason's British Championship and German Open campaigns were significantly affected.  However, now over a month on she is finally starting to get back to her normal self although is still undergoing montioring by doctors.  After the German Open, she took a break in order to try and fight the infection and is now slowly getting back to full training, although under caution.


10/9/09 Illness Mars British Championships

Amy Thomason's British Championships came to a disappointing end after a viral infection ruined her gold medal chances.  Thomason lost out to England competitor Loren Cook in the first round of the -68kg kumite division before coming back to gain the bronze medal.  After consultations with her coaches it was then decided in her best interest to pull out of the Open category - a first for Thomason.  Although, another bronze medal came through the Team Kumite event, it was not the results Thomason had trained for, nor hoped for.  She said, "It's highly disappointing to have an illness ruin my hopes especially after I had trained really hard for this event.  It had been lingering for the past 3 weeks but just my luck it got worse right before the British and completely wiped me out."  With the German Open the following weekend, Thomason hopes she can pull herself together to be able to compete although her health will have to take first priority.


21/7/09 European University Bronze for Thomason

Amy Thomason secured a bronze medal at the European University Championships held in Cordoba, Spain during the week.  She competed in the Senior -68kg Female Kumite division.  Initially, she beat a German competitor before proceeding to the quarter finals to face Spain.  Unfortunately, Thomason was beaten and put into repercharge against another German competitor for the chance to fight for the bronze medal.  Securing the fight with a 3-1 win, Thomason was elated at the result.  Thomason says she was feeling confident throughout the competition, with fighting in the Team Kumite divison the day before helping her to capture her timing and technique before starting the individual divison.


25/4/09 Check out Thomason's Diary as she heads towards Europeans

As Amy Thomason embarks on her final preperations before the European Championships on 8-10 May in Zagreb, Croatia feel free to go to http://www.kslkarate.com and check her regular blog tracking her progress through pre-training in Birmingham and whilst in Croatia.

If you visit the video section of the aforementioned website, you can also see an interview featuring Amy Thomason straight after her recent final in the Junior +60kg division at the National Championships.


17/4/09 Selection for Senior Europeans

Today, Amy Thomason secured her first individual selection into the England team for the forthcoming Senior European Championships to be held in May in Zagreg, Croatia.  Thomason, was selected for the -68kg female kumite division after deciding to switch to this newly formed weight category at the start of the year.


7/4/09 Scottish Open Team Win Against Odds

Kaizen Central's female kumite team took gold against the odds at the Scottish Open last weekend.  After winning the first round against a Scottish team, Amy Thomason, with club mate Kerry Gunn and third person Rio Smith, were up against favourites Natalie Williams, Katie Hurry and Gemma Marwood, (all members of Englands World Championship kumite team) in the semi finals.  Gunn went out first and beat Marwood, before both Thomason and Smith went out and drew with Hurry and Williams respectively.  This meant they were then left with only England club team EKKA to beat in the final in order to secure the overall win, which they did convincingly.  Although not all of the normal Kaizen Central members were present - thus asking Rio Smith to join the team for the day - they were pleased to avenge their final loss to EKKA at the EKF Natioanl Championships a fornight prior. 

Overall, this capped off a successful day for Thomason who secured bronze in the indiviudal senior female +60kg kumite earlier in the day.  With selections for England's squad for the European Championships to be named this week, Thomason was very pleased to fight well and secure the results she needs that will hopefully enable her to secure the kumite spot she desires.


16/3/09 British University Success

Amy Thomason achieved success at the British University Championships last weekend.  She fought her way through 3 rounds to obtain gold, enabling her to gain automatic selection to European University Championships in Madrid, Spain in July.  Thomason was delighted to get back to winning form after a dissapointing first round loss at the Dutch Open the weekend before.  Although suffering from excessive vomitting the week leading to the Dutch Open, Thomason was heavily upset not to come away with a better result.  However, looking to the Nationals on the 22 March, she now feels the latest success proves she has put it behind her.


5/5/08 Thomason Selected for Tokyo

Amy Thomason has been selected for the World Championships to be held at the end of the year in Tokyo.  She will be competing in the Female Team Kumite division alongside former World University Champion Natalie Williams, former Junior World Champion Katie Hurry, as well as Sarah Donnelly.  It will be Thomason's first Senior World Championships and is extremely proud to be their representing England.


11/5/08 Selection for World University Championship

Amy Thomason was selcted for the British team to compete at the World University Championships in Poland in July. Amy was pleased at being selected and looked forward to the tournament, where hopefully she can build on a disappointing second round exit from the competition last time in New York in 2006.


6/4/08 Success at Nationals

Amy Thomason achieved well at the Nationals this weekend with a medal haul of three silver and one bronze.  Her first silver medal came in the Senior Female Team Kumite and her second in the Junior Female Kumite +60kg.  She came close to beating former Junior World Champion, Kate Hurry, in the final and was disapponited not to clinch the gold having been up on points early on in the match.  The third silver came in the Senior Female Kumite +60kg, going down in extra time to Loren Cook, a previous England Squad member.  It was another closely fought match and again Thomason was unlucky not to win gold.  Lastly, Thomason's bronze medal came in the Senior Female Open Kumite, losing to another current England Squad member through disqualification in the semi-final.  Although Thomason was considerably ahead in points, one punch proved too much for her opponent and paramedics deemed her not able to compete thus securing the disqualification - Thomason's first in her career.  Overall, it was a successful tournament, and although several results could have been turned into gold medals rather than settling for silver, Thomason was pleased with the consistently high standard with which she fought and is hoping this will bode well for the upcoming Senior European Championships in Estonia.


10/2/08 Selection for England Karate team

Thomason has been selected for the English Karate team for the upcoming Senior European Championships to be held in Estonia in May.  Having fought well at the selection day, held at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre, Thomason has been included in the Female Team Kumite event.  This is the first time she has been selected for England since turning down a position in the New Zealand Karate team in 2007.  Thomason, is elated and hopes this is the start of a flourishing career as part of the English squad.


23/9/06 Success at German Open

Today, Thomason competed for the first time at the prestigous German Open in Hanau, Germany.  Thomason did remarkably well ending up 5th in a field of 38 competitors.  Thomason took out the first round 2-0 over Poland before going on to beat Switzerland 4-2.  This then placed her in the final for her pool against 2002 World Champion Nadine Ziemer from Germany.  Thomason fought a very tactical fight taking it to a draw before losing in extra time.  Although disappointed it was great experience for Thomason.  Thomason was then able to fight for third since Germany went on to the final however, Thomason was unlucky again losing to another girl from Switzerland 4-0.  The tournament is part of the Golden League circuit held in Europe every year and is highly regarded as one of the top tournaments in the the world.


13/9/06 Medal Haul at Oceania Champs

Thomason competed at the Oceania Championships in New Caledonia over the weekend picking up an array of medals.  This included her first senior international title having only just turned 18 in June of this year.  On Saturday she competed in the Senior +60kg female kumite division and beat Australia convincingly 4-1 in the final to claim gold.  She also picked up a silver medal in the Junior +60kg female kumite division losing by one point in the final.  Sunday was the day of the team events with Thomason contributing to two gold medals in the Junior female team and Senior female team events.  Thomason fought first for both teams and beat Australia on both occasions.  For the senior team this was the first time in nearly ten years that they had claimed gold in this event and beaten Australia in the process.
11/8/06 Thomason returns from 2006 World University Champs



Amy Thomason has returned from the 2006 World University Championships held in New York recently.  This was Amy's first international event as a senior competitor having recently turned 18.  Unfortunately Amy suffered a disppointing second round departure in the individual over 60kg kumite event.  After beating Russia in the first round 7-5, Amy then faced Greece where she ended up losing 0-3.  However, returning on the Sunday to fight in the Women's Team event, she fought well beating her first up opponent from Kazakhstan 5-0.  She then faced Chinese Taipei where again she won conviningly before losing to the Italian opponent in the quarter finals.