Toronto hosted the World Karate Championships last week. An open invitational “kumite” tournament was held in the city for (Shotokan style) Karate.
Shotokan is the largest school/style practiced in Japan and worldwide. We had the Israeli Team staying with us during the tournament.
The young Israeli Team (I believe the oldest participant was only thirty) did very well indeed. The rest are relatively young for such a large international tournament and rank only from First to Third degree Black Belts.
But for such a young team, they did remarkably well! One of their members Avi, is a Third Degree Black Belt and current Three Time World Champion for Deaf Competitors! In Toronto, he captured the World’s Bronze Medal for all competitors!
They took fourth place in the team competition and sixth overall in the “kata” (forms) championships. Pretty impressive for such a young team!
I guess if you are learning a Martial Art, it pays to be from a country where they quite often must “practice the real thing” on a day-to-day basis!
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The happy Israeli Team. That’s Avi (second from left) proudly sporting his World’s Bronze Medal!