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| Members of the Barbados Karate team at the Grantley Adams International Airport before they left for the World Championship in Canada. |
The Olympics and the World Championships are considered to be the pinnacle of any sporting discipline and many athletes strive not only to reach this goal but also to reign supreme.
Karate, more specifically Shotokan Karate has carried not only me but the Barbados Karate team through all the different levels of competition and finally to the top, though it was not the Olympics.
It was the World Championships.
Hundreds of competitors from all walks of life and all over the globe were on hand to participate in the prestigious World Championships held in Toronto Canada in 2008.
The age old saying, ‘hard work pays off’ has been proven to be true on countless occasions. The coaches of the Barbados team also believed in this concept and set out preparing us for this monumental feat, months in advance of the Championships.
What started out as three days a week of rigours training sessions that lasted no less than two hours, turned into six days a week with five months left to go. However there were challenges along the way with an uprising of the young adult competitors who wanted to challenge the more experienced members for the right to represent Barbados.
Competition is healthy and necessary if one is to obtain the best team possible and with the final selection of the team not yet made the young adults went about the task of making their way onto the team.
A tournament with the goal of selecting the members was held and the coaches and senior instructors were the judges.
The major spot up for grabs was the men’s team kata.
Team kata is where three members perform a kata (a sequence of moves depicting a fight also called forms), in a synchronised manner.
The judges could not decide after the first kata, and asked for a second one to be performed and still they were undecided. However the crowd was not and were heavily in favour of the younger team with the loud cheers the erupted from the stands after the performance.
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| Michael Mercer (left) performing a kata during individual men's kata eliminations |
Despite this the older, more experienced team were selected over the other one but an injury to their team captain left them short.
With only a few weeks left to the Championships the selectors decided to call up the other team and ask them to prepare to represent Barbados.
The disappoint from the tournament saw them no longer practicing for the event but concentrating on other areas until the call was made at short notice asking the team to work and train in this area. Training was now forced to go up to seven days a week and on some days twice a day.
This team comprised of Michael Mercer, Kevin Cox and Corey Greaves and as they took to the wooden floor at the Ryerson University in Canada, everyone wanted to see what this team from the small Caribbean of Barbados had to offer.
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| Corey Greaves, Kevin Cox and Michael Mercer are collecting their World Championship bronze medals. |
In a hair rising performance, the team captured Barbados first ever team medal at a World Championships. It was bronze as they were beaten by Canada who won gold and the USA who won silver.
In the juniors Kristopher Coppin was crowned the World Champion, while Cameron King won the kumite title.
