"Awesome," "WOW," "Fantastique," and "you must be proud," are a few of the adjectives and comments that we heard over-and-over at the Island Spring Karate Championships held on May 1st in Duncan. At the risk of sounding repetitive, we will say it again; our members are some of the best on the Island and, indeed, in the Province. Not only because we won a record number of medals, 36 in total, but because our guys and gals did an awesome job at representing the club.

Although medals are the icing on the cake, they do not always tell the whole story of the events. Two test cases come to mind. On the down side, Andrew Butler lost a medal in his event, even though he performed one of the best kata in his karate career. And, indeed, it was the best performed kata in his ring. Several inexperienced judges, however, made several errors in scoring and Andrew was denied a medal.

On the other side of the coin, Peter Kelly won a gold in kumite. Although that is impressive in itself, what's even more impressive is the fact that Peter, an orange belt, won the gold by competing in the blue/brown division. Rafael, also an orange belt, competed in the same event and won the bronze. Now that's impressive!

Please remember that errors by inexperienced judges, and by experienced ones at times, will happen. Hopefully, in the end, the amount of errors against us evens out by the number of errors in our favour.

Overall, it was a very impressive show by all, and is reflected in the medal standing.

Congratulations to one and all!

Danielle Alessio - Kata
Andrew Butler - Team Kata
Nico Butler - Kata and Team Kata
Julie Cunningham - Kumite
Sharon Goodman - Kumite and Kata
Stefan Kabal - Kata
Peter Kelly - Kumite and Kata
Brody MacMillan - Kata and Team Kata
Danny Riches - Kumite and Team Kata
Jeffrey Riches - Team Kata
Carah Webster - Kata and Team Kata

Todd Conrod - Kumite
Kayla Depuit - Kata
Joseph Esnouf - Team Kata
Brendan Flower - Team Kata
Stefan Kabal - Kumite
Kyle Owens - Kumite
Gary Parson - Team Kata
Danny Riches - Kata and Weapons Kata
Jeffrey Riches - Kata
Nathan Strech - Kata
Sarah Youell - Kata

Andrew Butler - Kumite
Nico Butler - Kumite
Paul Butler - Kata
Todd Conrod - Kata
Julie Cunningham - Kata
Kayla Depuit - Kumite
Rafael Ponce de Leon - Kumite

Shivonne awaits her score after performing kata		Joseph, Brendan, and Gary performing Team Kata		Brendan, Joseph, Gary, Brody, Jeffrey, and Carah
Nico, Andrew, and Danny performing Team Kata		Carah performing Kata		Sarah performing Kata
Backing off the mat with smiles and gold		Carah receiving gold		Danny performing Weapons Kata
Jeffery performing Kata		Brody performing Kata		Brody receiving gold
Andrew performing Kata		Mitchell performing Kata		Nico performing Kata
Kyle performing Kata		Julie performing Kata		Brendan performing Kata
Danny performing Kata		Joseph performing Kata		Ben performing Kata
Paul performing Kata		Kayla performing Kata		Peter performing Kata
Todd performing Kata		Danielle performing Kata		Nathan performing Kata
Nico scores (in about 1/30 of a second)		Danny delivers a crushing front kick		Kyle gives Nico a shot-in-the-arm
Andrew scores to the face		Colin scores to the ribs		Kayla kicks and scores under the block
We predict Stefan to score to the face in less than a second		Todd's oponent hits the mat (with some help from Todd)		Rafael puts a foot in Nathans chest and...
... Nathan returns the favour to Rafael		Peter goes airborne!...		... and scores with his feet on the ground too
The Youth Team (less Ben and Colin)