Six junior fighters and one adult fighter from the Grimsby strike team travelled to Boston with a number of supporters to compete in the first tournament of 2011 and came back home with a total of nine trophies and two medals! In the pee wee points section was Leo Collins who fought extremely well through his first two rounds to get into the final where he met a seasoned fighter from sleaford gym, Impact. Collins put up a great fight and came away with a 12-7 final count giving him the second place! Bailey Colbeck and Ethan Noton were up next in the -4ft 4" points category where the competition was very tough. Colbeck came away with a runner up position after being narrowly beaten in the first round. Noton was fast off the mark with his blitz techniques to the head which scored a lot of points and once he started to use his legs to attack he went straight through to the final where he took the gold convincingly. Evan Balch fought in the -4ft 8" advanced points section for the first time and after the nerves settled he started to fire in his side kicks to score following up with some nice backfists which took him to the final and continuing to score over his opponents with his leg techniques and eventually winning the gold.
Joe Axcell and Daniel Balch were both in the -5ft 2" points category with Axcell stepping into this category for the first time. Some tough opponents were on the mat but Axcell didn’t let it bother him as he pushed forward into his attacks and defending very well. After two rounds he narrowly missed out on the bronze but took home a well deserved runner up medal. Daniel Balch was next up in the advanced section where he started off with a blaze of fast reverse punches to win over his first opponent. Balch found himself in the final against a taller fighter but never let that faze him as he set off at full speed again fire in his side kicks followed by some nice footwork to avoid the attacks. After a fast and furious two minutes he marginally missed out on the gold and took home the silver. Bailey and Ethan were on again in the -25kg light continuous section this time which was a joy to watch as both fighters really did show maturity over their control of techniques. Bailey Colbeck fought his way through to a well earned silver and Ethan Noton used his experience in this section to gain him his second gold of the day really showing that the extra training in the gym has paid off! Evan Balch was on the mat again this time in the -35kg light continuous section where he battled through a round robin to earn himself a bronze and some valuable experience too. Daniel Balch fought in 
the -45kg light continuous section where after the round had ended a mix up with the referees meant that the two fighters had to go another 30 seconds to decide. Both fighters put extra effort in to impress with Balch coming out the victor with the gold. Ben Collins was the only adult strike team fighter to make the journey where he fought in the -85kg light continuous and points sections. Due to lack of numbers on the day there were three categories of all grades mixed in together so Collins had to step up the action as he fought against much higher grades than himself. After a tough first round in the light continuous section the referees decided that scrappy fighting techniques were better than clean direct shots and awarded the win to his opponent! In the points section, Collins fought extremely well and pulled off some excellent side kick, backfist attacks to get to the final where he continued to get stuck in with fast hands and powerful leg techniques even scoring a couple of head kicks in the process to earn himself a gold!
Picture – Joe Axcell, Evan Balch, Ben Collins, Leo Collins, Daniel Balch, Ethan Noton & Bailey Colbeck.