Karate club basking in medal haul glory
Yamakai Karate Club will need to invest in a new trophy cabinet.
Between May and June, several members competed in prestigious competitions – and returned with medals aplenty.
Calum MacDonald, who will travel to Indonesia in November to represent Scotland at the under-21 World Championship, claimed bronze in Germany in the under-52kg category in the Arawaza Cup. He then won gold at the British Karate championships in Glasgow, as did Greg MaCauley in the senior male under-67kg class.
Louis Galasso came first in the boys’ over-45kg section, while Emma Boyle and Amy Luke, who will compete with Calum in Indonesia, came second in the senior under-68kg and junior under- 63kg categories respectively. Matthew Grant claimed bronze in the junior under55kg.
In the Meadowbank Youth Open, Tilli Roseweir, Abbie Roach, Leah Semple, Louis Galasso and Erin O’Brien came away with silver and Carly Semple and Roxy Gereluyk won bronze.
Keir Fraser was champion at the Wishaw Grand Prix in the under-52kg class and Erin O’Brien won bronze in the over-45kg event. Erin won silver at Warrington’s Northern Open Classic, where Iona MacDonald won the girls’ eight to nine- year- old category and Calum MacDonald won the cadet kumite. Louis Galasso, who also won silver in the Annual Cumbria Open in the cadet over-57kg class, and Amy Luke, won bronze.
On the collective front, the cadet male teams tasted success as the A team won gold and the B team secured silver, while the female cadet side took bronze.
Club coach Jim Ross said: “We compete on a regular basis. A lot of clubs are geared towards grading and self-defence but the main emphasis at our club is competing. We fight to the highest level in the country and compete internationally. We’ve already been to Sweden, Denmark and Belgium this year.”
And Jim extended special praise to Calum and Amy for their under-21 World Championship qualification. He said: “It’s a big trip; the pinnacle of any young person’s career.”