More British and Irish medals for local karate students

It’s recently been a very busy competition schedule for students from the local Mizukara Karate Clubs that are based in Ards and Bangor. Firstly, at the WUKF Ireland Open, held in the SETU Arena Waterford, some four hundred plus karate athletes from throughout Ireland and the UK competed across the various categories of Kumite (sparring) and Kata (patterns). Current Northern Ireland girls’ kata champion Helena Stitt went one better by winning gold at this international event.  This superb performance was followed by international star Amy Adair who earned silver in both her individual Ippon & Sanbon Kumite events and a third silver in team rotation kumite. Up and coming star… Read More

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Four Northern Ireland Champions

For the first time in a long period the Northern Ireland Karate Championships were recently held in the North West of the province, in the new Foyle Arena. As always a number of students from the Bangor and Newtownards Mizukara Karate Clubs travelled to the event and again failed to disappoint. This time around the team returned with four new Northern Ireland Champions. The best of which went to current European silver medallist Dean Miller, who took the title in the Cadets Kumite (Sparring) and was only beaten to the medals in his kata event by the more dynamic stance style of his Shotokan opponents. The second title went to… Read More

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British Karate Championships successes

British Karate Championships successes A small team of local karate athletes recently returned from the Shikon British Open Karate Championships that were held in Harlow Leisure Centre, Essex. The team of three led by current European Veterans Kata Champion, David Brashaw had not competed in the British Championships before. Nevertheless, they performed extremely well First up was Charlotte Rylance. Charlotte fought her way to a very well deserved bronze in the Girls Cadet Kumite. Next up in a final was Cameron Speers. Cameron a former junior Northern Ireland this time got in the medals again, but this time for an excellent kata performance against the more dynamic styles of Shotokan… Read More

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Success at the European karate Championships.

David a former triple world champion has just returned from the IKU European Championships in Romania as European Veteran All-Styles Kata Champion. David commented. “This is a timely win for me. I like many people are very excited that our football team are going to the Euros. I have been a fan since the Billy Bingham era and actually got my originally IFA coaching qualification from Roy Miller back in 1985. I feel it is fantastic that our young athletes are inspired by Northern Ireland’s sporting success at international level and hope that we have great performances at the Euros.” Northern Ireland Karate coach Dermott McLaughlin was delighted with this… Read More

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Northern Ireland karate Championships successes

At the recent Northern Ireland Open Karate Championships that were held in Queen’s University Belfast PEC by Karate Northern Ireland, local athletes from Newtownards and Bangor were in the think of the action amongst some five hundred competitors from around Ireland. The Scrabo and Carnalea Karate clubs have a long history of being successful and this year was no exception. We were delighted when Newtownards student Jordan Lewis lifted his first Northern Ireland title in Kumite (sparring), soon after to be followed with more titles by his Bangor team mates Karl Andreasson also in kumite, and Rachel Fleming in her individual kata. All three of these students have won European… Read More

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Local karate students kick for medals

At the recent UKF International Karate tournament which took place in Donegal local karate students from Ards and Bangor who train in the Mizukara group of clubs took on some of Europe’s best and left with a handful of medals. Up and coming star Luke Allen was on fire. He blazed a trail to gold in the boys’ age 9-10 kumite (sparring) event and also collected silver in the team kumite with Adam Rooney. Junior squad members, Matthew Dales and Ben Rylance kept up their quality performances both claiming joint bronze in the boys’ age 11-12 kumite. In the cadets Dean Miller gave a superb first round kata performance but… Read More

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