Last Sunday local karate girls Sarah Brashaw and Levi Kane travelled to the Bawnogue Open karate tournament in Dublin and came back with gold medals. The event attracted over three competitors from around Ireland.

Sarah was up with her dad David first in the parent and child expert category. Following up on their previous silver medal successes in this event, this time they went one better by claiming the gold medal. Sarah then went on to double it up by winning the 13-14 years girls green to purple belt individual kata category with an excellent performance of Passai.

Levi, who initially had been disappointed due to the club not entering the sparring events, more than made up for it by winning the her age group brown to black belt kata event. Coach Brashaw added “It was probably the best kata Levi has ever performed. She really deserved to win in the final.”

In the cadets category the Carnalea team of Claire McPeake, Neil & Glen Bailie were narrowly beaten into second place by a team from Carlow. However in the individual events they added two more medals, Claire claiming another silver and Neil a bronze.

In the junior categories, the kata team of Rhiannon Wells, Craig Brashaw and Conor Porter narrowly lost out in a play-off for second, but once again got in the medals in the individual events with Rhiannon claiming silver and Craig a bronze.

The club has a busy next few months planned with two competitions in April, the annual Fun Day, merit badges and senior European Championships in May, not forgetting the visit of a World Champion.