Karate heroes get a kick out of medals

THERE were joyous scenes at Cork Airport yesterday when the Irish Karate team returned from the World Championships in South Africa with a total of 13 medals, one silver and 12 bronze.

Ireland’s management team were delighted with the achievement of the men’s team of five, who reached the semi-finals before losing narrowly to silver medallists, Italy, and the Irish ladies’ team, who won a bronze medal in the team Kata (movement) category.

Team manager Neil Sargent of the Midleton club said: “We did much better than we could have expected and our results reflected great credit on our team members. We had to win eight matches in the men’s team event to reach the semi-finals and our match against Italy was very tight. Most of the teams we compete against are led by professional coaches and instructors while our operation is entirely amateur.”

The Irish party of 32 - 24 of them competitors - spent two weeks in Durban and enjoyed a one-week holiday after the championships.

Said Greg Manning, leader of the delegation: “Ireland won the team event at the European Championships in Portugal a couple of months previously, so we went into the Worlds well-prepared and it showed.

“Our men’s win over the home team, South Africa, in the quarter-finals of the team competition was one of the highlights of the championship and I think the effort involved showed when we competed against Italy. But our teams did brilliantly, particularly when you consider that we were missing a couple of senior competitors because of injury.”

Vanessa Tait (Midleton) won silver and bronze medals while Karen Sargent, daughter of the team manager, won two bronze medals.

The other bronze medal winners were: Kevin Sullivan (Mitchelstown), Gareth O’Donovan (Bandon), Ger Callanan (Bandon), Martin Donnelly (Midleton), Michael Coughlan (Dublin), Stuart Hickey (Youghal), Ray Payne (Bandon), Gillian Crowley (Mayfield) and Caroline Tuthill (Mayfield).

Next major event on the circuit for the Irish is the European Championships which are scheduled for late next year. Already the Ukraine have put in a bid to host the championships.

Before then, however, Ireland will consider invitations to visit Holland and to return to South Africa on foot of invitations they received at the conclusion of the championships.