GUYANESE martial artists did Guyana proud at the recently concluded 1KD Caribbean Karate Championships which were held in Trinidad and Tobago.

The 24-member team drawn from the YMCA Dojo came up against the best from several Caribbean countries including host country Trinidad.
They competed in the team and individual Kata, Kumite, Embu and Bunkai events and of the 50 medals they won 16 were gold, 24 silver and 10 bronze.
In the adult male category both Patrick Cheeks and Keith Beaton lost in the second round of the individual Kumite in close encounters that could have gone either way.
The Trio of Patrick Cheeks, Keith Beaton and Roger Peroune won silver medals in the team Kumite and Shane Rahaman replaced Beaton in the trio to win silver in team Kata.
They lost to Barbados in the team Kumite and Trinidad in the team Kata.
In the Individual Male Adult Kata, Roger Peroune placed third with point one of a point separating first and second and second and third respectively. In the Individual Male 17-19 category Shane Rahaman won bronze medals in both the Kumite and Kata events.
In the Female Individual Adult Kumite, reigning champion Nathalie Gibson of Guyana lost in the final to Adanna Moore of Grenada, a title she has held for the past four years. The Female 17-19 Individual Kata saw Kristina Cheeks and Lakeisha Pearson secure first and second respectively for Guyana. Lakeisha created history by being the first female karateka of the ASK-G from Linden to secure a medal at this level of competition.
Guyana’s Kemo Cornelius, Shane Wilkinson and Nixon Cheeks easily captured gold in the Boys 14-16 Team Kata which they repeated in Team Bunkai and Team Enbu. Cornelius then won gold in the Individual Kata and Nixon Cheeks got gold in the Individual Kumite. This made both of them the most decorated athletes from Guyana, having won four gold medals each.
The 14-16 Female category saw Leah Shariff,Kelly-Ann Fortune and Theresa Sampat win gold in the Team Kata. They placed second in the Team Bunkai with Leah placing third in the Individual Kumite. Theresa Sampat then won gold in the Individual Kumite, 11-13 age category with Kelly-Ann Fortune placing second.
ASK-G’s Medharishi Ramdhani teamed up wirh GKC’s Aubrey Bettencourt and Kenrick Cheeks to win silver in the Team Embu and Bronze in Team Kata and Team Bunkai in the Masters division. Medharishi also won bronze in Individual Kata.
The other outstanding performances were in the Boys 8-10 age group with Daniel Jailall, Aryan Singh and Jordan Fae Kong winning silver in both team Kata and Bunkai.
The locals are now preparing for the World Karate Championships.