New breed of Junior Stars
30 April 2009by Carnalea Wado Kai
The listing was posted by Mizukara
Carnalea Karate Association has a new breed of karate stars. At last weekend’s North West Open which took place in Donegal, karate students from North Down and Ards claimed a hatful of silverware.
The first medal of the day went to Kevin Lewis in the open senior kata event, where he claimed silver just behind Aoife Smith, world silver medallist.
The next event with some thirty competitors was the junior kata. In this event Craig Brashaw was placed fourth and Conor Porter sixth. There was also a great performance of Pinan Nidan by Kirstie Greer in her first ever international competition.
Then the action really started to heat up in the sparring events.
First of all Amy McAllister fighting in her first major competition, eased to gold in the girls under ten years section.
In the boys events Sam Stevenson claimed bronze after losing narrowly to a world class fighter from Shikon, England in the semi-final. Jamie Stewart and Ryan Jackson turned in great fighting performances but just lost out in their respective categories and Craig Brashaw made the quarter final of his event.
In the Girls under twelve sparring, the Carnalea students completed a clean sweep, with newcomer Megan Bell coming fourth, Rhiannon Wells third, Jackie Taggart in second and current All Ireland champion, Chloe Mackenzie adding another title to her achievement record.
The day was rounded off with a magnificent gold for the under twelve team, Craig Brashaw, Chloe Mackenzie and Ryan Jackson, never losing a fight in any round.
Coach David Brashaw added 'This was a fantastic day for our students. It was a competition of over 200 competitors and every category had loads of competitors and skill. I feel it is vital for the development of our students to attend events of this high quality.
In addition the performances by Chloe Mackenzie and Craig Brashaw firmly justify their selection for next month’s WUKF GB international in England.'