Members of the Goju Kai dojo in Bedfordview and Founder’s Hill recently participated in the annual Eagles Championships held in Pretoria before the lockdown.
Coach Russell Sim revealed this was the first competition for the year and was a good opportunity for the athletes to prepare for the start of the tournament season.
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He said Goju Kai entered 16 athletes and took 25 medals in total – 11 gold, seven silver and seven bronze.
“The karateka put in hours of training, mostly on weekends when the tournament classes are held, to prepare for these tournaments.
“A great deal of the preparation also takes place at home.
“It takes hours of commitment and sweat to get an athlete up to tournament standard, and the results are paying off,” said Sim.
Sim added it took great commitment from the athletes to get themselves ready, as well as huge commitment from their parents to get them all the safety equipment.
“This commitment from the athletes and parents has resulted in our dojo having over 50 SASCOC-approved Protea representations since 2011.”
He explained the dojo uses local competitions as preparation for the Karate South Africa national championships, which is coming up soon.
“We have 24 students in the World Karate Federation (WFK) Ekurhuleni all-styles karate team, and 19 members in the WKF Gauteng all-styles team.
“All our members are expected to do well at the junior and senior all-styles national championships,” said Sim
Individual results from the Eagles Championships were as follows:
- Tyler Kabali-Kagwa – gold medals for kata and kumite
- Gabriella Toweel – gold medals for kata and kumite
- Matteo Erasmus – silver medal for team kata
- AJ van der Merwe – gold medal for kata
- Michael Hauptfleisch – gold medal for kata and bronze for kumite
- Connor Hundermark – gold medal for kata, silver medal for team kata and bronze medal for kumite
- Chloe Keartland – silver medal for kumite
- Mikayla Alves – gold medals for kata and kumite
- Nicolas Alves – gold medal for kata and bronze medal for kumite
- Troy Borges – silver medals for team kata and kata, bronze medal for kumite
- Mathew Soares – bronze medal for kata
- Suzaan Botha – gold medal for kumite and silver medal for kata
- Darshan Govender – bronze medal for kumite
- Devin Bourbon – silver and bronze for kata
