Vincy Karate men strike gold at Caribbean Championships

St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) earned two gold medals and one silver at the hosting of the 12th Caribbean College Karate Championships, staged at the University of Technology’s auditorium in Jamaica, July 19 to 23.

Represented by Claude Bascombe Jr, Zak Burke and Jerome Burke, the gold medals were pouched in the Team Enbu and Team Bunkai, while the silver was secured in the Team Kumite.{{more}}

In the Team Enbu, SVG placed ahead of second placed Grenada and third placed Jamaica, while in the Bunkai, Grenada again was second, with Guyana – third.

Docking ahead of SVG in the Kumite was Trinidad and Tobago, while Guyana placed third.

Explaining the categories, Bascombe told SEARCHLIGHT that the Enbu is a choreographed fighting sequence, where each member of the team has to defend against attacks from the other two team members, with points awarded on execution of effective karate techniques and finishing blows.

He further elucidated that the Bunkai is a kata application, in which one team member performs the kata application, while the other two perform the attacks, while the Kumite is about “sparring”.

Bascombe said that injuries in the Kumite might have caused them not to have secured another gold medal.

“Zak got injured from a member of the Jamaican team during the first round of the Team Kumite, while I suffered a concussion during the match with Guyana,” Bascombe reported.

SVG in the individual events did not perform as well with Bascombe and Zak Burke being eliminated in first round of the individual Kata, while Jerome Burke made it to the second round, but was eliminated at that phase.

Likewise in the Individual Kumite, they were all eliminated in the first round.

Bascombe said that the trip to Jamaica was mainly financed out of their own pockets, but had minimal sponsorship from individuals by way of sponsor sheets, as well as contributions from the National Insurance Services (NIS) and from the General Employees Co-operative Credit Union (GECCU).

“We are grateful for all the support we received,” Bascombe concluded.(RT)