Thirty-eight karateka from the Goju Kai St Andrews Karate Academy brought home 54 medals after competing in the 44th SA Goju Kai National Championships.
The championships, recently held in Bloemfontein, saw the karate students return with 23 gold, 23 silver and 18 bronze medals.
Dojo head, Shihan Russell Sim, said 23 dojo members are now national champions in their respective categories.
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The event had over 750 participants competing in different age groups with some divisions having 64 competitors.
Sim, said, “The karateka were really looking forward to this national championships, as the last one was in 2019.
“They all spent hours in and out of the dojo preparing for the six categories.”
The categories included individual kata, individual kumite, team kata, bunkai, team kumite and jiyu kumite.
Sim said the amount of preparation to compete in all the events was astonishing.
“Thanks to our dojo members’ efforts and that of other members of the Gauteng team, the Goju Kai Gauteng provincial team was able to improve its ranking from fifth in 2019 to second in 2024.
“It was a huge improvement.”
Some of the results included:
• Sensei Jesse Sim – gold for kata, gold for team, bronze for bunkai and bronze for kumite.• Senpai Tayla Murray – silver for team kata and bronze for bunkai.
• Senpai Connor Hundermark – gold for team kata, gold for bunkai and bronze for kata.
• Senpai Mikayla Alves – bronze for kata and silver for team kata.
• Senpai Praneel Ramjee – gold for kumite.
• Senpai Stefan van der Merwe – gold for kumite, gold for team kata, gold for jiyu kumite, silver for kata and silver for bunkai.
• Senpai AJ van der Merwe – two gold medals for team kata, silver for kata, silver for bunkai and bronze for jiyu kumite.
• Senpai Suzaan Botha – bronze medal for team kumite and silver for individual kumite.
• Senpai Mathew Soares – gold for team kata.
• Phumelele Ngwenya – gold for kumite and gold for team kata.
• Tyler Kabali – Kagwa – gold for team kata, gold for bunkai, silver for kumite and bronze for kata.
• Prayan Ramjee – gold for kata.
• Cristiano Coelho – gold for kata and silver for kumite.
• Chloe Keartland – silver for bunkai.
• Caitlyn Routley – gold for kumite and gold for team kata.
• Lillian Loots – gold for team kata.
• Allison Loots – bronze for kumite.
• Izabella Turton – gold for team kata and bronze for kumite.
• Jazmin Turton – silver for team kata, silver for bunkai and bronze for kumite.
• Kate Ward – silver for team kata, bronze for kumite and bronze for bunkai.
• Knowledge Obada – bronze for kumite.
• Nomthandazo Ndebele – bronze for kumite.
• Vanshika Sharma – gold for kumite and bronze for kata.
Based on their achievements at the Goju Kai National Championships, 28 members from the Bedfordview academy were selected to represent SA.
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The 28 karateka will form part of the South African Goju Kai national team which will compete at the eighth Goju Kai Global Championships in Chiba, Japan next August.
For most team members, this will be their first trip to Japan, and all are very excited to experience the culture and sights in the home of karate.
The dojo is busy with fundraising initiatives to assist the members travelling to the global championships, as touring Japan is quite an expense.
