ORANGE’S case for International Sports Karate Association World Cup glory gained a significant boost on Saturday, with some of the city’s finest martial arts fighters gaining valuable competition experience at the Pollet’s Martial Arts inter-club tournament in Bathurst.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With October’s World Cup looming, Orange sent 22 fighters to Bathurst for the event and sensei Emma Gavin wasn’t surprised by the results.
She said with medals and trophies in the bank following the tough competition against fellow Pollet’s dojos from Dubbo, Bathurst, Granville, Penrith, Cudal and Forbes, Orange was on track for a strong showing at the ISKA World Cup at Liverpool in four months.
“The majority of these guys will compete in that World Cup,” Gavin said, with some of the Orange fighters beginning their martial arts careers at Bathurst on Saturday.
“But there’s some guys just starting off, just competing for fun like our little tigers. It was such a good day for them to have a go, all of the competitors got a medal and first, second, third got trophies.”
One of the standouts from Bathurst, Orange’s Scott Honeysett came away from the inter-club tournament with the most spirited fighter of the day award.
“He fought in what most of us would consider the toughest divisions of koshiki, and for his first time fighting he did so well. Hanshi [Ian Pollet] awarded him the most spirited award,” Gavin continued.
In another bumper tournament for the Pollet’s Martial Arts school as a whole, fighters were put through their paces in kata, synchronised kata, weapons and koshiki sparring events.