Five Vale Karate athletes were proud to be part of the small but very strong Karate Wales squad which attended the IKU (International Karate Union) World Championships, held in Kilkenny, Ireland from the 19th -22nd October 2017.

All categories were tough, but the quality of our squad shone through as Ellie-Jayne Farrugia in the Children's 10-11 categories earned a silver in Kata and another silver in Kumite!
Vale Karate's double WUKF European Champion, Chiara Baker, competing in the Young Ladies 12-13 year age groups took a bronze in Kumite and a silver in Kata, both Ellie-Jayne and Chiara missed kata golds by whiskers!

Alysha Lee also went all the way to the final in the Female Cadets 14-15 Kumite and also very narrowly missed the gold medal to take Vale Karate's third silver to add to a bronze medal.

The senior events featured Vale's coaches Leah Copeland and Luke Howard.
Luke is no stranger to winning major events and is already a multiple WUKF/UWK and IKU World Champion.
He was a class above his adversaries in Kilkenny and with some great displays, was once again the IKU World Champion!

Like Chiara and Ellie-Jayne, Leah's Kata looked good enough for gold, and like her students, the flags went against her in the Kata final, by the narrowest of margins 3-2!

However she was not to be denied in the Kumite and earned her first Global title with a great win.

Congratulations must also go to the other members of the Karate Wales squad who came back with a tremendous haul of medals.

Pictures:
TOP: Those who attended Club Night congratulate our International medallists
BELOW: Leah, Luke, Alysha, Chiara & Ellie-Jayne with their medals.