KARATE: Johann van Tonder
SOUTH AFRICAN fighters smashed their way through the first All Africa Knockdown Karate tournament in Cape Town last weekend, taking all eight trophies.
At the event, visiting Japanese officials awarded the very prestigious rank of Eighth Dan Black Belt to “the father of karate in South Africa”, Shihan Len Barnes, who introduced Kyokushin Karate to the country in the 1980s.
Showing off their high standard to the cheering crowd, local fighters eliminated karataka and kickboxers from Zimbabwe, Zaire, Swaziland, Gabon and Mauritius in the first bouts.
Tension ran high during semifinals as Leonard Nketai outpowered the current national champion and favourite, Ben Sedoaba, after two draws. Nketai, a former South African champion, managed to stay clear of the destructive jumping roundhouse back kicks Sedoaba has become known for, focusing himself on less energy- draining kicks to the knees.
Knockdown competitions permit full contact blows to the body and face, the groin being the only barred target. There are no weight divisions and participants have to qualify themselves by tamashinari wood-breaking demonstrations.
Patrick Masina, with only seconds left in the final round, collapsed, ending second overall to Nketai, the first All Africa Knockdown Karate champion.
Sedoaba was finally beaten into fourth place by Rodney Wippenaar, who, in a sudden burst of energy, started pumping punches into his opponent’s much heavier body. A panting Wippenaar’s brave performance against Masina in the semifinals also earned him the cup for the most spirited fighter.
Current world champion Sensei Midori made nothing of splitting two baseball bats with his chin after a warm-up session in which he splintered eight pieces of wood, each about two centimetres thick.
Following up on the report in last week’s edition of the Weekly Mail & Guardian, the meeting held between Japanese and local karate officials to try and iron out divisions existing in South African circles, is reported to have had a positive outcome.
Sources who attended the meeting, which was closed to the press, say that the local branch of International Karate Organisation (IKO) and the Karate Association of South Africa (KASA) reached an agreement that Shihan kenny Uytenbogaardt would be officially accepted as representative of South African Kyokushin Karate.