22 April 2008

The Golden Dragon International karate tournament last Saturday in Ardee was a day of ‘hot’ results for athletes from Carnalea Karate Club.

Against opposition from across the UK, Ireland and Europe the club medal tally for the day consisted of five gold, eight silver and one bronze from ten students competing.

First to claim medals were the junior kata team; Niamh Pang, Sarah Shields and Rhiannon Wells who with a beautifully synchronised performance claimed silver in their final.

Levi Kane added to her last outing medal win in Dublin, this time claiming second in the girls under 15 years kata.

In the cadets pairs event Neil & Glen Bailie also had to settle for silver. However they were delighted when Neil added a gold to this and Glen claimed an individual bronze.

The senior team kata was won by Kevin & Sam Lewis with Neil as a substitute for coach David Brashaw. Sam then went on to win his age group individual kata with Kevin claiming bronze in his equivalent event, narrowly losing out to the eventual winner in the semi-final.

Kevin and Sam went on to prove their quality, prior to the WUKO European Championships in Venice this May, by winning the Senior Pairs kata.

Two other students from Carnalea Sarah Brashaw and Jack Pang narrowly missed out on medals too.

Coach Brashaw was delighted with the day’s results. “Not only have we had a fantastic result at this international but this week we have also had four young people selected to represent Northern Ireland at the Junior World Championships scheduled to take place in Venice this October.”