SKSM, once again represented Malta in the London International Open Karate championships. This was the fifth international competition this year that this local Karate School participated. The first one being in Ireland, two tournaments in Italy, one in Malta and now London, UK.
The SKSM Team proudly returned to Malta with a haul of 19 medals four gold, seven silver and eight bronze.
SKSM placed fourth overall amongst 27 organisations from a number of different countries. Chris Galea, head and coach of SKSM Malta Team, now well known both locally and internationally, has led a squad of 14 athletes.
The first two gold medals were won by Lucienne and Andrew Galea in the Masters and Childrens’ Kata category respectively. The fourth and fifth place in this category went to Dalton Aquilina and Jamie Willoughby.
This category had the highest number of participants and this meant more rounds for these young athletes. Andrew also participated in the Black belt Children Category where he landed another bronze medal for Malta. Cedric Gauci took part in the Cadets 16-18 years and managed another third.
In the Girls’ under 12 category, Kayrin Gauci’s brilliant performance earned SKSM another gold medal whilst Anthony Smith placed third on the podium in the most awaited category of the day, the Seniors Open male Kata event.
The last two medals achieved on the day in the Kata events came from Vanessa Attard (gold) and Fitz Patrick Schembri (bronze) whilst Joseph and Charmaine Borg finish sixth and seventh place out of 15 competitors in the Seniors Intermediate event.
Two Senior SKSM Maltese teams competed in the Senior Team Kata event, where Team Malta A (Lucienne Galea, Anthony Smith, Barbra Caruana) managed to draw with an English Team for the first place, and had to settle for second after narrowly losing with a minute difference of 0.2 points during the decider match.
Team Malta ‘B’ (Fitz Patrick Schembri, Vanessa Attard, Silvana Gauci) managed a third place out of nine different teams.
A tough challenge awaited the children’s team, composed of Dalton Aquilina, Cedric Gauci and Andrew Galea who placed third from a pool of 15 teams. Brilliant results for both the seniors and juniors teams achieved once again for SKSM and Malta under the coaching of Chris Galea.
The second part of the day was the Kumite Event (sparring). SKSM’s athletes, tired by now, were not discouraged.
Cedric Gauci earned SKSM another bronze medal in the under 15 years Category.
Dalton, Andrew, and Jamie all gave their best in their respective categories and managed to make it to the quarter finals in their respective categories.
By now only the seniors Maltese athletes were left to compete. Vanessa was next in action from the seniors side and with her brilliant performance managed to win the gold in the Ladies seniors. Joseph Borg and Patrick Schembri won the second and third place respectively in the Intermediate Kumite Section while Anthony Smith managed another third place in the Seniors Open weight Category.
Chris Galea, was congratulated for the outstanding performance of his team. The commitment and dedication of this well known coach and athlete, revealed once again the potential that SKSM’s athletes hold.
The next events for which Chris Galea is preparing his school are various International Championships in Italy where athletes from SKSM were chosen by well known Italian Karate clubs to train and perform with other Italian teams.
This is one of the opportunities offered by SKSM to its members to train with semi professionals Karate-kas in Italy.
Also, an intense training programme will soon be launched in preparation for the coming Kumite Challenge 2008 and for next year most awaited event, the Malta Open International Karate Championships to be held in Malta next March.
For more information about SKSM and forthcoming competitions, please visit the site www.sksmalta.com or else phone on 7953 7924 or 2145 3706. Email : [email protected]