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THE Guyana Karate College (GKC) on February 28 held its first grading examinations for the year under the instruction of Chairman and Chief Instructor of the International Karate Daigaku, Shuseki Shihan Frank Woon-A-Tai, 9th Degree Black Belt who was assisted by other senior officials of the Canada headquartered International Karate Daigaku.
Headlining the examinations was teenaged karate sensation Hannah Farinha from the Marian Academy, who earned her third degree black belt or Sandan rank with a scintillating display. She was followed by Jonathan Robinson who, in a gritty display of karate, moved from first degree to second degree black belt or Nidan rank.
Angelina Campayne, Jadon Lee, Gavena Doodnauth, Vanita Chulie, Banesha Doodnauth, Jayanti Ram, Najuma Gibbs all had the honour of earning their first degree black belt or Shodan rank after rigorously going through their paces.
Sixteen karatekas who were graded were from the Guyana Karate College Shakties Dojo – West Coast Demerara and were under the instruction of Sensei Kenrick Cheeks. Four of these karatekas earned their Shodan Rank or 1st degree black belt.
All five karatekas from the Guyana Karate College-Sophia Dojo were extremely successful at their grading examinations as well, one skipping white belt to orange belt, while the other four skipped orange belt to blue belt.
Five senior black belt karatekas successfully sat an Instructors examination as part of their quest to become fully certified International Karate Daigaku Instructors. They were Kenrick Cheeks, Aliya Wong, Somlata Bispat, William Grant (Sr) and Paula Louis-Grant.
Moving from white belt to white with yellow stripes were Amaya Mohamed, Kathleya A. Bacchus, Christian Manohar, Reneeka Laikhraj, Leanne Rodney and Kaiden Bobb.
Skipping white belt to orange belt were Raul Khan, Nicholas Welcome, Sanjana Rupchand and Neil Rafferty.
Moving from yellow belt to orange belt were Sarah Maraj, Ethan Muneshwar, Omari John, Aiden Gomes, Naveen Singh, Jared Rahman, Derick Easton, Saffiya Singh, Anushka Singh, Farha McWilfred, Kevin Seokumar, Makayla Sparman and Jonathan Phang.
Elevated from orange belt to green belt were Ameer Shariff, Jonothan Yong and Darnell Klass, whilst those skipping orange belt to blue belt were Malcolm Sparman, Alicia Manikram, Navindra Singh, Kumibili Vggis and Curt Hendricks Promoted from green belt to blue belt were Jared Hurry, Janiya Lee, Justin Persaud, Roy Khadoo, Navita Gunraj, Smriti Devanand and Chitra Persaud.
Prosper Jacobs moved from blue belt to purple belt while Rehana Bascom skipped blue belt to brown belt and Jerome Blyden and Lemuel Wilson were promoted from purple belt to brown belt.
Omar Shariff, Micaiah DePeazer and Sharda Ranglall were promoted from 1st brown belt to 2nd brown belt. Genoveva Buelna skipped 1st brown belt to 3rd brown belt and Laurence Baptiste, Laurie Baptiste, Randolph Scott, Nathanael Archer, Sarah Persaud and Sharda Persaud moved from 2nd brown belt to 3rd brown belt.
There will be one more grading examination in July of this year before Team GKC departs these shores to represent Guyana at the IKD World Karate Tournament in Barbados in August 2018.
