The Association Do Shotokan Karate-Guyana club (YMCA) won some 50 medals competing in the 1KD Caribbean Karate Championships in Trinidad and Tobago last month.
Twenty four karatekas from the ASK-G YMCA Dojo came up against the best from several Caribbean countries including host country Trinidad in the competition held August 15-17 competing in team and individual Kata, Kumite, Embu and Bunkai competitions.
The team won 16 gold, 24 silver and 10 bronze medals.
According to a press release from the club, both Patrick Cheeks and Keith Beaton lost in the second round of the individual Kumite in close encounters of the male adult competition.
Cheeks, Beaton and Roger Peroune won silver medals in the team Kumite while Shane Rahaman replaced Beaton to win silver in the team Kata losing to Barbados in the team Kumite and Trinidad in the team Kata.
In the individual male adult Kata Roger Peroune placed third while in the individual male 17-19 category Shane Rahaman won bronze medals in both the Kumite and Kata events.
In the female individual adult Kumite competition, the defending champion Nathalie Gibson of Guyana lost in the final to Adanna Moore of Grenada. Gibson had held the title for the past four years.
The female 17-19 individual Kata competition, saw Kristina Cheeks and Lakeisha Pearson securing first and second respectively for Guyana. Pearson became the first female karateka of the ASK-G from Linden to secure a medal at this level of competition.
Guyana’s Kemo Cornelius, Shane Wilkinson and Nixon Cheeks easily captured gold in the Boys 14-16 Team Kata which they repeated in Team Bunkai and Team Enbu. Cornelius won gold in the individual Kata and Nixon Cheeks won a gold medal in the individual Kumite.
The 14-16 Female category saw Leah Shariff, Kelly-Ann Fortune and Theresa Sampat winning gold in the Team Kata.
They placed second in the Team Bunkai with Leah placing third in the Individual Kumite. Theresa Sampat then won gold in the individual Kumite, 11-13 age category with Kelly-Ann Fortune placing second.
ASK-G’s Medharishi Ramdhani teamed up with GKC’s Aubrey Bettencourt and Kenrick Cheeks to win silver in the Team Embu and Bronze in Team Kata and Team Bunkai in the Masters division. Medharishi also won bronze in Individual Kata.
The other outstanding performances were in the Male 8-10 age group with Daniel Jailall, Aryan Singh and Jordan Fae Kong winning silver in both team Kata and Bunkai.
The karatekas are now preparing for the World Karate Championships scheduled to be held in Toronto, Canada next year.
