As this blog returns on the eve of the New Year, a chance to look back at some of the qualifier events, beginning with the Breaking compeition in the 2023 European Games, where no Brits qualified.
The Games took place from 21 June to 2 July in Kraków (Poland), with the Breaking event an Olympic qualifier for Paris 2024. The event was held not in Kraków itself but the nearby city of Nowy Sącz, in the newly redeveloped Strzelecki Park. The winner in both the Men’s and Women’s (or to use Breaking parlance, B-Boys and B-Girls) event would earn a spot.
Great Britain entered two B-Boys, but noone in the B-Girls event. Sunni and Kid Karam were therefore the first Brits to ever try their luck in Olympic qualification for this sport.
Two-time UK Champion Sunni, who placed 17th in the European Championships in 2023, and 20th in the World Championships a year earlier, was put in Group B. He started with an easy win over Belgium’s Lucky, with a unanimous victory in the first round and then taking seven judges to two in the second. In the second game, he was trounced by the Netherlands’ Menno, taking just one judge in the first round and losing unanimously in the second. It all came down to a final game against Poland’s Wigor, but he narrowly lost both rounds: the first one 5-4, and the second 6-3. With only the top two in the group going through, Sunni was eliminated.
UK Champion Kid Karam was 32nd in the 2022 World Championships but was a runner-up in the 2022 Europeans, and came 9th in the 2023 edition. He opened his Group C against Dutchman Lee, but lost both rounds 7-2 to fall to an early defeat. His next match was against Norway’s Exaggerate. He won the first round 6-3, but lost the second 5-4, counting as a narrow victory, with the tiebreak being judges’ total votes (10-8). Another Norwegian was next in the form of Daniel, who Kid Karam got past with a 7-2 win in the first round and a 6-3 in the second. Thus, he managed to squeak into second. He would face Menno in the quarter-finals, but the Dutchman triumphed 6-3 and 7-2.
Thus, the next chance for British “B-Boys” (and B-Girls) would be the WDSF World Championship in Belgium in September.
GB Games 