Durban trio aim for top spot at Karate World Champs

THERE is an incredible amount of belief in the hearts of three Protea karateka as they gear up for the Junior World Karate Championships scheduled to take place in Konya (Türkiye) later this month.

Jared Atkinson (Durban North), Gregory Reeby (Sydenham) and Aarman Neermal (Phoenix) will join 2 000 competitors from more than 120 countries that will participate in the championships.

The trio, who practise Shotokan Karate, will compete in the All-Styles competition for team Kata.

In Japanese, the word ‘kata’ translates as ‘form’ and refers to a detailed choreographed pattern of martial arts movements.

For 16-year-old Jared, this tournament is all about emulating the success of their performance at the Union of African Karate Federations (UFAK) Region South in Durban earlier this year, where they won gold.

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“It is going to be a tough competition, there’s no doubt, but we are confident that we will be able to reach our goals and make South Africa proud. I will be competing in the Team Kata event as well as the Kumite event. I have just returned from the 10th Commonwealth Karate Championships in Birmingham where I won a bronze medal in Kumite, so I’ve taken a lot of confidence from that too,” the Crawford International La Lucia learner said.

For fellow teammate, Gregory (Reeby), the test of their collective mettle is how hard they have trained to represent South Africa.

“This competition will be my second time representing my country, and both times have come in 2022. We have a bond that we’ve formed at our dojo in Durban North, and that brotherhood has prepared us for this moment. We understand the level of competition will be extremely high, but we have high goals that we are confident we’ll reach,” Reeby said.

For Aarman (Neermal), the input of their sensei Renshi Brando Pillay has been instrumental.

“Without him, I don’t think we would have gotten to where we are. He has been instrumental in our journeys, strengthened our self-belief and pushed us to go further and reach higher. With the team kata event we are competing in, we have to be in sync, and in order to reach that level of synchronisation, we’ve practised countless times under the guidance of our sensei. We hope to make him and our family and friends proud,” he said.