15 February 2009 Update
After the successes of 2008, Karate New Zealand has entered 2009 full of hope for even greater success for its traditional, sport and participation karate programmes. The first National training camp of the year was well attended and enthusiastically received by athletes and coaches alike. The theme of the camp was to look ahead with justified confidence to 2009. (See the full report "KNZ Athletes hit 2009" by Grant Holland in our features panel)
On 3 February, National Kata Champion Chris Rahardja lived a dream at the prestigious Halberg Awards at the Vector Arena in Auckland. For overseas readers, we should explain that the Halberg Awards are the premier Sports Awards event in New Zealand. The event is televised live on National Television. This year, along with the sporting superstars of NZ - Olympic gold medallists, All Blacks, members of the World Champion NZ Rugby League team - we all got to see 16-year-old Andrew Christopher Rahardja (and his personal coach the irrepressible National Coaching Convener Duane Monk) waving the flag for Karate. Chris was named as one of the 4 finalists (from over 30 nominees) for the 2009 Westpac Emerging Talent Award. This is the first time any Karate athlete (or any martial arts athlete) has made the finals at the Halberg Awards. The judges recognised Chris's outstanding achievements in 2008 - winning the NZ Open and National Kata title in his debut year in senior ranks, winning the Oceania under 18 Kata and Kumite titles (being unbeaten at age group in Kata and Kumite at Oceania Championships since his first appearance as a 12 year old in 2004), placing 5th in the Senior Male Kata event (out of a field of 58) at the World Championships in Tokyo last November. Although Chris did not win the emerging Talent Award, all New Zealand Karate practitioners both traditional and sport can take heart at his achievement in making the final four. Chris was at the same table as the two big winners of the night - Olympic Champion Valerie Vili who won the Sports Woman of the Year and the coveted Supreme Halberg Sports Award and Kirsten Hellier who won Coach of the year (see in the photo with Chris). As it turned out it really was the Karate table. Unknown to most of New Zealand there is a strong Karate connection with both Valerie and Kirsten and also National Netball Coach Ruth Aitken (who was also seated at their table) - see the separate article in the features column for the details.
Last week the national Under 16 yrs Development team (bolstered by several seasoned Oceania medallists) flew out to take part in an invitation international children's tournament in Fukuoka, Japan. The 10 junior athletes lead by National Coaching convenor Duane Monk will compete in 2 separate tournaments and take part in kumite seminars under the tutelage of former All Japan National Kumite Coach Seiji Nishimura and current World under 65kg Champion George Kotaka of the USA. See the separate article in the Features column for fuller details of the team and the event.
Coming up next month are the first Regional competitions in Northland and Waikato. The first weekend in April sees the Auckland Open and an open seminar on the new WKF competition Rules with guest presenter, WKF Referee Council member Con Kassis of Australia. Con is a regular visitor to New Zealand shores and his seminars are always great value and not to be missed. On 19-20 April the New Zealand Open will take place in Christchurch followed by the second National Training Camp at Christ's College. Following this camp the shadow squads will be named for the Commonwealth Championships in Chennai, India in September and the WKF World Junior and Cadet Championships and Under 21 World Cup in Rabat, Morocco in October. The final teams for both events are likely to be confirmed after the National Championships and Training Camp in Wellington in July.
Looking ahead in sport karate, the first major international event is the World Games in China Taipei in July. Five New Zealand athletes (Travis Butler, Chris Bennett, Letitia Carr, Tamara Glyn and Andrea Anacan) have qualified for this prestigious event by virtue of winning their categories at the Oceania Championships last September. New Zealand hopes for their first medal success at World Games level are high.
Looking ahead in traditional karate, there is bound to be a host of activity at club and association level which we will keep you posted on, especially any open seminars by leading instructors.
We learn from the past and have an eye to the future but in Karate, as in life, we live the now. Last year's success is meaningless if we don't build on it. Whatever the challenges that may confront us, we will continue to build. |
