New Malden and Richmond upon Thames Students Success at Junior Karate Championships and English Nation Seniors Cuba Parris, who attends Burlington Junior School in New Malden, got a gold medal at the Belgian open tournament in the under 37kg category for his age group, in kumite (sparring). The Junior Karate Championships and English Nation Seniors, which took place on 21/22 March 2009, were a huge success for the Khalsa Karate Federation, with 3 gold medals and one silver medal won. (Khalsa karate federation is an organisation which is part of the English karate federation.) Parris fought well to achieve his gold; in the final he was down three points to nil against a representative of the Toyakwai federation, when Parris went for a roundhouse to the head, but his opponent tried to block his thumb got bent back and unfortunately could not continue, giving Cuba the gold.

Cuba was not the only local success story. Two other golds were picked up in the English National seniors, both of which included Sophie Santillo from Richmond upon Thames, in the English Championships. This was an outstanding achievement considering this was her first English Championships. Sensei Sat felt after winning the commonwealth open last year this would be a very good comp to see how does and sophie did not disappoint winning 4 fights to reach the final. Sophie’s final was against a very strong opponent and Sophie’s awesome hook kicks took her to gold winning 8-3 in the final. Sophie continued her success in the team winning all her three fights 8-0, 7-0, 7-1 helping the team take gold, and Sophie’s double gold in her first ever English.

A silver medal was also picked up by Cuba Parris’s brother, Bleu Parris, in the kata (a series of choreographed moves). In the first round, his kata was very powerful and won 2-1. Bleu’s second round and third round was very tough but determined and confident Bleu won 2-1, 2-1 performing Sei-Unshin and Unsu. Now reaching the semi-s Bleu performed one of his favourite katas in Chatnayara Ku-Shan-Ku and won 3-0. The final was going to be very tough and Bleus Annan although very good wasn’t strong enough to beat a good Chatnayara and lost 0-3 taking silver medal. Bleu also competed in the kumite (sparring) but due to tiredness from the kata only made it to the second round.

So it seems that Richmond and Kingston Borough are the places to look for future English karate stars.