It’s recently been a very busy competition schedule for students from the local Mizukara Karate Clubs that are based in Ards and Bangor.
Firstly, at the WUKF Ireland Open, held in the SETU Arena Waterford, some four hundred plus karate athletes from throughout Ireland and the UK competed across the various categories of Kumite (sparring) and Kata (patterns).
Current Northern Ireland girls’ kata champion Helena Stitt went one better by winning gold at this international event. This superb performance was followed by international star Amy Adair who earned silver in both her individual Ippon & Sanbon Kumite events and a third silver in team rotation kumite. Up and coming star Ben Ritchie snapped up a bronze medal in his individual Sanbon kumite event. Harrison Stitt whose performances keep getting better and better, narrowly missed out on a medal in his individual kata event.
The following weekend, at the recent Karate England British Open, in Harlow, Essex, top local athletes Amy Adair and Levi Kane shone. Amy added to her growing trophy collection with a silver in the All-Styles kata, an individual bronze in the Ladies Ippon Open Weight Kumite and finally another bronze in the Team Rotation Kumite event. Levi was delighted to collect silver in her Open kata event and bronze in the All-Styles kata event.
Coach David Brashaw was very pleased with the performances of the students at both events and added “Two big competitions and many great performances from our students. As a coach I can’t ask for much more. It’s great to see our standards rising at international events.”
