AMBER Low and Yannick Rameshwar attained their shodan (1st Dan) last Monday, when the Guyana Karate College (GKC) successfully held its grading examinations under the supervision of Master Frank Woon-A-Tai at the Malteenoes Sports Club pavilion. Low and Rameshwar were among the 44 karatekas who displayed their art in front of Master Woon-A-Tai, the master mind of the GKC, and chief instructor Jeffrey Wong respectively.
Apart from Low and Rameshwar, eight other persons did exceptionally well, with five of them attaining their 7th kyu and they from 9th kyu (white belt) skipped yellow belt and went straight to orange belt.
These are Malcolm Cheong, Brandon Yong, Imran Ally, Lochan Ramlochan and Ronaldo Roberts, while Shem Wilkie passed from 7 kyu to 5 kyu (purple) and Deonarine Lakeram and Ryan Leitch moved from 6 kyu (green) to 4 kyu (purple).
Six other persons passed from 9 kyu (white belt) to 8 kyu (yellow belt), five from 8 kyu to 7 kyu (orange belt), four from 7 kyu to 6 kyu (green belt), seven from 6 kyu to 5 kyu (purple belt), three from 5 kyu to 4 kyu, six from 4 kyu to 3 kyu (brown belt), one from 3 kyu to 2 kyu and two from 2 kyu to 1 kyu.
Meanwhile, Wong informed Chronicle Sport that the senior karatekas are training for the 11th International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) Pan American championships which will be held here at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in two weeks time.
According to Wong, while the response from corporate Guyana has been on the increase, the karatekas attached to the GKC are bent on reaping maximum success at the upcoming championships, hence their intense training sessions at the MSC Thomas Lands pavilion.
“We are coming good at the moment with regard to our preparations for the Pan Am tournament. The presence of Master Woon-A-Tai has been a plus at our training sessions, especially for the junior karatekas and he has expressed his pleasure at the way things have been going so far.
In fact, Master Woon-A-Tai has undertaken the responsibility to guide the karatekas with their preparations for the championships, taking them through their final touches, while we had our final session at the Marudi Creek two weeks ago, which was an intense and rigorous one also,” stated Wong.
He added that the teams will begin arriving in Guyana for the ISKF championships shortly and with the help of corporate Guyana, the GKC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS), can successfully host the tournament.