‘Empty hand’ heroes return home anything but empty-handed
A group of talented karatekas flew the Plettenberg Bay flag high when they recently raked in the titles at two world championships abroad.
The team from Plettenberg Bay Martial Arts Academy, which included Gee Bleeker, Suzy Noble, Aiden Trahms, Johandrie Peens, Eden Bleeker, Cameron Frew and Galliano Boni, has returned to their hometown recently after participating in the ISKA World Martial Arts Championships in Orlando, Florida in the US earlier this month. They brought home not one, but four world champion titles along with about 30 trophies.
This after Galliano, Aiden and Joshua, along with Aligi Boni, Osean Booyzen, Loiza Pisonic and Zoe Ashurts participated in the WUKF World Karate Championships in Dundee, Scotland in June.
World champs in our midst
During the most recent event, Galliano earned the title as world champion in the traditional weapons kata category while managing third positions in traditional kata, creative kata and creative weapons kata. He also claimed second in the creative weapons kata with music category and placed fourth in both creative kata with music and points sparring. Suzy managed to claim two world champion titles in points sparring and clash sparring. She also came second in continuous sparring and fourth in traditional kata.
Johandrie took the final world champion title in clash sparring in her age category. She also placed second in points sparring and fifth in continuous sparring.
Aiden took third in traditional weapons kata and clash sparring while managing fifth position in traditional kata, points sparring and continuous sparring.
Eden managed two third positions, one in points sparring and another in clash sparring, and also fifth position in both traditional kata and continuous sparring.
Gee came second in clash sparring while managing fifth in both points sparring and continuous sparring.
Cameron placed fourth in both traditional kata and traditional weapons kata and fifth in creative kata and creative weapons kata.
‘Blood, sweat and tears’
During the event held in Scotland, Galliano received a bronze medal for traditional kata while Joshua claimed a gold medal in the same category.
“All of the karatekas trained very hard. Apart from their usual classes twice a week, these competitors trained up to six days a week leading up to these major tournaments. It takes a very dedicated and focused person to train at these levels. There is much blood, sweat and tears that accompany this training schedule. The karatekas who train for competitions are by far better prepared than those who just attend classes. The tournaments definitely improve the performance and standard of their martial arts,” says Roberto Boni, proud father of two of the competitors.
The competitors have been led by sensei Elrie Bosman as chief instructor for traditional karate. The style of karate is Goju-Ryu. Sempai Gee Bleeker is the chief instructor for kickboxing.
“The WUKF World Championships especially was a tremendous experience for the competitors. It was a very tough competition and the competitors performed very well and an enormous amount was learnt about competition karate. It was clear that our karatekas can all perform at the highest levels and certainly did not disappoint. The South African team came 11th out of 42 countries with 14 medals.”