Letterkenny Shotokan Karate Club had a very successful weekend at the inaugural WUKF Irish Open Karate Championship in Waterford.
The event took place at the SETU Arena, where Teresa Gallagher, Mark Voronovskiiy and Gerard Foley competed across the entire range of competition. First up on the mats was Mark who performed the Kata “Jion”, which roughly translates in Japanese as “mercy of the temple”. It was a very high standard of competition he faced but in the end it was a close call before he took a well deserved Silver medal.
Gerard was next where a tie occurred for first place, with a run off round eventually leading to Gold for him. He also competed in the Kobudo, or weapons, categories, where a last second mistake brought him a bronze medal.
It was Teresa’s first major competition and she put her best foot forward, competing in kata and kumite events against world champions. It was no mean feat to jump in at such a deep end, but it all worked out as she walked away with multiple medals.
The team took part in every event possible, and with both good luck and bad, managed to take away seven medals in total. The standard was very high with clubs taking part from across the whole country and internationally too, so it was a great achievement for LSKC.
Many thanks go to the sensei at LSKC, and a big congratulations to the many people involved in organising such a professional championship at the WUKF.
For anyone looking for a late New Years resolution, LSKC is open to everyone of every age and has classes nearly every day of the week down at the Community Centre.
“Fitness, self-defence, competition, confidence-building and a bit of craic; karate has it all, so come on down.”
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