The Guyana Karate College (GKC) represented its country proudly by placing second behind Barbados in the tenth annual Caribbean Karate Championships this past weekend at the Barbados Community College Gymnasium in Barbados.
The tournament is the premier event in the Caribbean for Shotokan Karate and encompassed demonstrations such as Individual Kumite (fighting), Kata (form), team Enbu, Bunkai, and Kata. It began on Saturday and wrapped up on Sunday. The tournament featured teams from Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago.
The GKC won the coveted trophy for the best performances in the junior divisions of the tournament, whilst Barbados won in the senior divisions.
Attending the opening ceremony were a number of senior International Karate Daigaku officials including: the Chairman and Chief Instructor, Kancho Frank Woon-a-Tai M.S., 9th Degree Black Belt; Deputy Chief Instructor Shihan Dr. Dexter Shim 8th Degree Black Belt and Shihan Alice Bernstein 7th Degree Black Belt among others.
One again the GKC kept the Golden Arrowhead flying high, copping many medals. Excellent performances in the girl’s division came from Hanna Farina, Rebecca & Rachel Ramlall, Tashana Wong, Alyssa Persaud, and Alliyah Wong, Christy Dey, Mickelly Rahaman and Ashley Seeram.
The ladies category saw Kerry Ramkumar, Claire Cheeks, Nikita Clark and Jennifer Rameshwar clinching the gold, silver and bronze medals.
Meanwhile in the boy’s division, outstanding performances came from Tyler Orderson, John Mc Grath, Antoine Herod, Yannick Rameshwar, Mark Wong, Michael Hing, Carlos Gonsalves, Desmond Fernandes and Otto Harris.
In the men’s category, Eric Hing, Romel Rameshwar, Mathew Hurry, Aubrey Bettencourt, Kenrick Cheeks and Medharishi Ramdhani were triumphant coming out with gold, silver and bronze medals.
Senior Instructor and Vice Chairman of the GKC, Sensei Jeffrey Wong expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance at the Caribbean Championships, maintaining the very high standards of karate particularly the younger karatekas whom he considers to be the underpinning of the present and future of the College.
He was also pleased with the tenacity and the perseverance shown by the charges under him, overcoming a number of challenges faced, including only arriving in Barbados hours before the commencement of the tournament.
The team now looks forward to participating in the Guyana Cup karate tournament slated for November of this year in Georgetown.
