Getting a Pisa the action
A BELTING BOOST FOR SCHOOL AS STUDENTS TAKE TO WORLD STAGE
TWENTY-TWO members of the Heaton-based Burns School of Black Belts are flying the flag for their country later this week.
The students have flown out to Italy as part of the World Traditional Karate and Kickboxing Association England squad competing at the Unified World Championships in Carrara near Pisa.
BSBB is contributing almost a quarter of the 98-strong national team.
Club coach and England team manager Rick Burns is hoping they can repeat their success of previous years and bring back a huge haul of medals.
He said: “Anyone who has been selected to represent their country has achieved much already.
“Many of our team have genuine chances of bringing back medals.
“We have a mix of experience and our team includes several previous world champions as well as first-time competitors who support each other.
“They are all at the side of the mats encouraging their team-mates through the long days of competition.’”
The tournament takes place across four days and encompasses almost every known martial art.
Around 6,000 competitors from more than 80 countries will attend the event - arguably the biggest competition of its type in the world.
Qualifying competitions are held tomorrow, Friday and Saturday with the finals on Sunday.
Burns is rightly proud of his competitors, who receive no central funding and have had to pay their way via supermarket bag packs, raffles and various fund-raising activities during the year.
He added: “We have two team sponsors to whom we are very grateful but funding in the main comes from the pockets of the competitors and their parents.
“If there is anyone out there who wants in future to sponsor a group of world-class athletes who train five or six times a week get in touch.”
Anyone interested can contact Rick Burns on 07841 353 453 or e-mail him at mrburns@bsbb.ccuk.