Karate club with bases in Blyth and Cramlington wins medals at championships

Kokoro Shotokan Karate Club attended the 12th Sunderland Karate Championships held at CitySpace, University of Sunderland, earlier this month to compete against clubs that had come from places ranging from Scotland to Liverpool, and was delighted to leave with four bronze medals.

The club was particularly pleased with its results because it was the first competition more than half the 11 members of the team had ever taken part in.

The members representing the club ranged in age from six years old to adult, and in expertise from orange belt up to black belt.

Jay Crosby came third with Denujaa Balachandran just one place behind in fourth in the Under-16 Brown Belt Kata final.

Max Conolly won a bronze medal in the Boys’ 10-and-Under Kumite and Christina Hart came fourth in the Adult Kyu Grade Kata.

Club instructor, Sensei Gemma Gibson, who is a 3rd Dan, said: “All the club members demonstrated a fantastic attitude and showed great team spirit throughout the day, especially since more than half of them were competing for the first time.

“It was fantastic to see how they all handled the pressure of the event and performed very well, all the hard work paid off.”

Kokoro Shotokan Karate Club received a grant from the Heart of Blyth recently.

This grant aims to work with local people to build a stronger community and part of the grant was used to fund the club members so they could attend the championships to help them bond as part of a team, gain confidence and experience of competing against other clubs.

The club was also awarded the ‘Sports Award of the Year’ from Cramlington Town Council earlier this year for the work they do with the community.

Kokoro Shotokan Karate Club has classes every night of the week and is based at the Isabella Community Centre in Blyth and Concordia Leisure Centre in Cramlington.

For more information on joining the club, contact Gemma on: 07587 166997