Anthony celebrates winning world karate title for the second year in a row
Anthony will be vying for his fourth Dan grading next year. Should he achieve it, it would put him two short from his father.
Local karate superstar Christopher Anthony became a two-time world champion when he recently successfully defended his crown in Tokyo, Japan, during the Karatenomichi World Federation (KWF) World Cup.
Anthony (29) became a world champion for the first time in 2017 in Malta, Italy.
In Japan, the Dan Triangle member produced a come-from-behind win against Johannesburg-based training partner Coenraad Malan 2-1 in the final, putting a stamp of South Africa’s dominance on the senior men’s kumite (fighting) division.
In kumite, fighters are awarded points for clean hand and leg strikes to the upper body.
Each fight is two-minutes long and whichever fighter achieves two points first wins. Leg strikes count as two points and hand strikes as one, but a great hand strike can earn a fighter two points, so fights can be as short as 10 seconds.
His win in the final was yet another sign of Anthony’s resilience and big match temperament as it was not his first come-from-behind win at the competition.
In the first of his total six fights in the Japanese capital, he also went one 1-0 down before rallying to move on to the second round.
En route to being crowned champion, Anthony battled with fighters from the host nation, SA, Switzerland and France.
Thirty-eight countries gathered in the Japanese capital for the karate jamboree.
Quizzed on what it takes to be crowned world champion, Anthony said: “You have to be dedicated to your craft and you’ve got to be willing to learn.”
On his biggest takeaway from the world cup, the third Dan said: “It’s to never give up. First fight I was 1-0 down, but I never gave up. I surprised myself after the recovery, but sometimes you need to get smacked to wake up.”
Anthony’s father, who also shares a first name with his son and is his trainer, added: “I’m very excited about my son winning the world cup title back to back. He trains hard, sometimes as late as 11pm – he really deserves it.”
