At the recent UKF International Karate tournament which took place in Donegal local karate students from Ards and Bangor who train in the Mizukara group of clubs took on some of Europe’s best and left with a handful of medals.
Up and coming star Luke Allen was on fire. He blazed a trail to gold in the boys’ age 9-10 kumite (sparring) event and also collected silver in the team kumite with Adam Rooney. Junior squad members, Matthew Dales and Ben Rylance kept up their quality performances both claiming joint bronze in the boys’ age 11-12 kumite. In the cadets Dean Miller gave a superb first round kata performance but lost out narrowly for a medal in the final. He did however make up for it in the kumite where he collected a well-deserved bronze.
Leading from the front as usual in the girls’ events was Rachael Fleming being the top Wado-Ryu kata girl once again and coming third in a strong Shotokan category. She then went on to collect a second bronze in an excellent kumite event. Finally together with club-mate Amy Adair, Rachael collected another bronze in the team kumite event. Amy had her best performance of the year in her individual kumite, coming away with a fantastic silver for her determined sparring. There were also great kata performances from Jessica Palmer and Charlotte Rylance both coming 4th in their individual categories.