Young Scottish Lions ROAR in BERLIN!
SAKAI/SKE selected only nine young athletes to participate on Saturday at the Berlin International Karate Open. With a total of 1383 entries, 170 clubs and 39 nations attending, this was a great start to 2019 international campaign for our young athletes.
They competed against the best that Berlin and Europe could offer. Out of the nine athletes we selected three took podium spots and two others lost out in the reprocharse for bronze.
The first athlete of the day to secure a podium spot was Dundee’s very own “Pocket Rocket” Miss Daisy Hutchison. Daisy put in a solid performance and secured herself BRONZE in the Girls -38kgs category. Our next BRONZE medallist was Lewis Bryson in the Boys -38kgs category. Lewis had to overcome some talented athletes on the way to securing his BRONZE and very narrowly missed out on the opportunity to compete in the finals.
The outstanding performance of the day goes to Matthew Pratt.
Matthews performance continued to improve round after round, cumulating in a decisive 6-0 thrashing of his Italian opponent in the final to be crowned “Berlin International Open Champion”.
But this is not the end of the weekend’s activity for Matthew. He jumped on a plane and flew back to Scotland to compete on the Sunday in the Scottish Karate Grand Prix. Matthew showed true determination and desire challenging himself to rise to the occasion and battling through the rounds once again to make it to the final.
Unfortunately, on this occasion Matthew was to be narrowly beaten by Ben Woods ranked number five in Europe by the WKF [World Karate Federation]. Matthew really showed grit, determination and an outstanding work ethic over the weekend.
Take a bow young man, your family, your club and your association are all very proud of you, but this is just the start of this year’s activity so I’m sure we will be hearing more about this young athlete in the weeks and months ahead.
Matthews performance on Sunday gives him the potential to retain his crown of Overall Scottish Grand Prix Champion at the end of the season. So, watch this space for further updates.