Windhoek
With the hosting of the National Black Belt Grading and National Championship last weekend, the Namibian Shotokan Karate Academy completed another successful Karate project.
The Namibian Shotokan management committee, under the leadership of sensei Willem Burger, staged one of the most prestigious karate tourneys ever seen in our neck of the woods. Proceedings leading up to the “FNB Shotokan National Championship” got underway last Friday, with the National Shodan (Black Belt) grading.
Karatekas, who were tested for shodan, had a minimum of five years’ experience, with some having as much as 12 years’ training in karate.
The syllabus they had to comply with was very stringent, resulting in all of them training and preparing for five days a week from the beginning of the year for the grading.
Before attempting to graduate, all karatekas hoping to make the grade have to undergo and pass a theoretical test, a fitness test and a ‘grueling’ pre-grading, with all technical aspects to be properly scrutinised by four senior instructors.
Once the aforementioned had been successfully completed, only then could they attempt the official grading on Friday, where their technical proficiency was measured and gauged. The gradees ranged from the ages of 15 to 65 years.
Saturday morning started with a march-on, welcoming speeches and announcement of the new Junior Black belts and Shodan grades, followed by a well-planned and smoothly-run tourney on four floors on the premises of the Windhoek Show Grounds.
The following karatekas successfully graded during the competition:
Junior Black Belt (under the age of 16 years)
Keanu Stuurman
Retief Theron
Rene Gilomee
Mayvonne Swart
Kyle Burger
Junior NiDan (2nd degree black belt under the age of 16)
Nicolaas Swart
Shodan (Senior Black Belt)
Janus Botes – Rae-Luke Erasmus
Devano Diergaardt – Ryan Kruger
Keith Openshaw – Yolande de Beer
Cindy Sabattie – Marchelle Mans
Wilke-Mari Hamman – El-Maree Kotze
Maiko van der Bijl – Lisa Liesching
Kelly du Plessis – Jean-Pierre Bottazolli