TWO members of Wagga’s karate club have done it proud at the nationals.
Wagga’s Hana Sawal and India Becroft were the only two Riverina competitors to represent NSW at the prestigious AKF National Karate Championships in Adelaide earlier this month.
The two Shinwa-Kai Karate Club members went up against 23 of Australia’s best competitors in the female children (12-13 years) Kata category.
Sawal was able to make it through to the final where she was awarded the silver medal.
Shinwa-Kai Karate Club coach Sawal Salleh, who is also a member of the NSW coaching team, is proud as punch of the pair’s performance.
“Hana and India had given their 100 per cent in the tournament,” Salleh said.
“Travelling twice a month to Sydney either to compete in a tournament or to train with the NSW team for the past six months, they worked really hard to make it this far and they have the potential to go further.
“Not only that they are trained to win in any competition, but also they are mentally equipped to handle defeat gracefully and bounce back to better themselves for the next tournament.”
The Kata category sees two athletes compete against each other by performing a traditional kata, which is a set of karate moves, in front of a panel of judges.
The judges would then give their decisions or votes on who should win that particular bout in accordance to the World Karate Federation rules.
The judging criteria includes the conformance to the form, the level of technical performance and the level of athletic performance.
