Two years ago, 40 year old civil servant David Brashaw from Newtownards became the first person from Great Britain and Ireland to win a World Karate Confederation gold medal. This month in Novi Sad, Serbia he not only defended the title successfully, but also added the veteran's title too. This is a remarkable achievement and well deserved considering the amount of work he puts into his training, the sport of karate and for the promotion of sport in the Ards borough. David currently runs the very successful Carnalea Karate Association, is Ulster Karate Council national coach and regularly attends the local Ards Sports Development Committee meetings.

David commented “This is my fifth world karate championship since coming seventh in 1993. My achievement this month is only now starting to sink in. I a doubly delighted as my Northern Ireland team mate Cathy McAleer from the Esporta Fitness Club in Belfast also collected a gold at the same event and led the ladies team to an unbelievable world bronze in the sparring, beaten only by the eventual winners, USA. I hope our amazing success inspires more young people to get involved in the sport. I have already had recent requests from church youth groups and schools to provide demonstrations of what it is all about. I suppose my philosophy is that this is what it our future should be all about - creating opportunities for our children and offering them things to aspire to. In this day and age, where there are less and less places for children to play, sport is the arena that can still cater for physical activity and fun. Then, if they achieve, it is all about recognising their efforts.

Ulster Karate Council Chairman remarked “This is by far the best result in the history of karate across Ireland. We are privileged to have them as ambassadors for Northern Ireland.”

David added “In some ways I have been very lucky, that for the best part of ten years I had access to the man who brought the style of Wado-Ryu karate to the western world in 1963, Professor Tatsuo Suzuki. He certainly inspired me to keep trying to succeed, taught me directly about the style of Wado Ryu karate and helped me realise that everyone is beatable. On the other had I have had to sacrifice many things in my life in order to achieve my sporting goals. Primarily of course my family time, personal finance and perhaps my career development in the civil service.

This year I was delighted when Ards Sports Development Committee offered me some financial assistance for these world championships, without which, I certainly would not have been able to go and defend my title.” The Sports Development Committee for the Ards borough meets on a monthly basis. It is primarily made up from representatives from ‘sports clubs' within our borough who want to develop all aspects of sports locally. The committee offers advice, support, networking or possible funding for local individuals, teams and coaches. Within the next few months they hope to establish their own directory of sports club contact information on a Sports Development website. Following that, they will once again be making preparations for the annual Ards borough Sports Awards.

David added “In today's society it is often very difficult to secure funding or sponsorship for many sports. Without all of the time and enthusiasm given by those club representatives who regularly attend these meetings, many young sports people from our borough would not have had that leg up that made such a difference to them. I for one, would encourage all sports groups in the borough to get involved by coming along to the meetings.”