Bedfordview karatekas rake in the medals

The students of Goju Kai Ekurhuleni Karate Academy in Bedfordview won 35 medals at the recent Karate South Africa All-Styles National Championships, with the senior championships held in Gqeberha and the junior champs in Durban.

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The dojo brought back an unprecedented number of medals and can now boast 10 national champions.

The dojo members won 20 gold, seven silver and eight bronze medals between the two tournaments.

“It is a testament to the hard work put in by the students to prepare for the two prestigious tournaments,” said head coach Shihan Sim.

“We did months of fine-tuning to get the guys ready for the nationals. It included fitness training, a great deal of stretching, fighting drills and kata preparation, and the results speak for themselves.”

The athletes trained seven days a week to prepare for the nationals and were rewarded for their efforts.

“I am especially proud of our unison kata teams, as our dojo won five out of the six unison kata divisions at the nationals,” said Sim.

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The star of the nationals was Gabriella Toweel, who finished with three national titles, winning gold in the girls’ 12 to 13 kata, gold in the girls’ 12 to 13 kumite and gold in the seven to 13 female team kata event.

She was followed by sensei Jesse Sim, Tyler Kabali-Kagwa and Chloe Keartland, who each won two national titles apiece.

The individual results were as follows:

• Kate Ward, Tayla Murray, Bongi Ngwenya, Bradley Ho-Tong, Jazmin Turton, Connor Hundermark and Mathew Soares won gold in team kata.

• Suzaan Botha: gold for team kata and bronze for kumite

• Jesse Sim: gold for kata and team kata

• Gabriella Toweel: gold for kata, team kata and kumite

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• Chloe Keartland: gold for team kata and kumite

• Phumelele Ngwenya: gold for team kata and bronze for individual kata

• Tyler Kabali-Kagwa: gold for team kata and individual kata

• Praneel Ramjee: gold for team kata and bronze for kumite

• Stefan van der Merwe: gold for team kata, bronze for kata and bronze for kumite

• Nomthandazo Ndebele, Mikayla Alves, Lillian Loots and Izabella Turton each won silver for kumite

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• Cristiano Coelho and Prayan Ramjee each won silver for kata

• Giancarlo Ferrante: bronze for kata and kumite

• Gugulam Ndebele: bronze for kumite

• Riaan Turton: bronze for kata

The dojo looks forward to the Karate South Africa League Championships in Cape Town, after which the national karate team will be selected for the UFAK Region South Southern African Championships.