One of the biggest International Karate competitions, the Malta Four Nations Cup was held at Savio College in Dingli recently. The one day event was organised by the well known local karate school SKSM Malta, headed by Chris Galea, the main organiser.

This was another huge success, with 250 athletes from four countries: England, Ireland, Malta and Scotland.

The athletes competed in 40 categories – Children, Juniors, Cadets, Seniors Ladies, Seniors Males, Masters and teams – in both Kata (combination of techniques performed by the athletes in front of the judges where points are obtained on perfection, coordination, balance, speed, and agility) and Sport Kumite (when two athletes try to touch each other in a specified target area and obtaining the highest points possible in a limited amount of time).

Athletes competing included R. Bramley, M. Scotchers and J. Mottram from England (winner of Kata Male Seniors), who is European, British and Commonwealth Gold Medallist. Other competitors included J. Izatt from Scotland and the Maltese athletes A. Galea, K. Gauci, K. Curmi, C. Gauci, D. Aquilina, M. Calleja and I. Zammit amongst others who left a very good impression in all categories

In Kumite (fighting), as expected, two of the best world fighters stole the show. James Brunton (Ireland) won his Gold medal from among 28 athletes, in the heavyweight category, after a very good challenge offered from our Maltese athlete Michael Attard (SKSM Malta) who finished as runner up and Alton Brown (England) who won the under 75 kgs amongst another pool of 29 fighters.

Another brilliant performance was given by the Juniors SKSM team Kata which comprised D. Aquilina, A. Galea and K. Camilleri, who claimed the gold from a pool of 11 teams from 17 different organisations. The seniors Team Kata (M. Giordmaina, D. Schembri and D. Ciantar) also claimed a place on the podium after the England Team who gave a brilliant performance of Kata and Bunkai (application). In the team events Senior Kumite section (senior fighting) Scotland beat England with a minor difference of points to claim the gold.

The whole event was run under the World Karate Federation (WKF) regulations and was well controlled by 18 qualified Karate referees and judges headed under Chief referees Lucienne Galea (Malta) and Oliver Brunton (Ireland).

The Head of SKSM Chris Galea, commented that he was extremely pleased with the professional running of the championships and also very satisfied with all of his students’ performance and commitment and that, without any doubt, left another very good image of the school and Malta in the International Karate scene. The school (SKSM) also managed to get the second overall Trophy from a pool 17 organisations from four countries with a stunning result of seven gold, nine silver and 20 bronze medals.

In the meantime an intensive training programme is facing another 30 SKSM athletes who are now preparing for the International Karate Championships to be held in Italy next month.

Without doubt, this is another opportunity given by this school for its students to compete abroad. More information may be obtained on the school’s website or call on 21453706 or 7953 7924