North West Karate Academy, based in Newton-le-Willows and St Helens, recently participated in the HX Karate Cup in Huddersfield with a squad of eight members, six of whom were first-time competitors. Competing under the association banner of Karate-Do-Federation, the team returned with 2 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze medals. The team came 10th out of 32 other associations/clubs.

First-time competitors George Bradbury and Arusnan Thayabaran performed well in the boys’ +30kg under 10 years Kumite, winning silver and bronze medals respectively. They both narrowly missed out on their final matches.

Liam Potter (not pictured) won a silver medal in the male senior -75kg Kumite, while Alfie Macdonald competed in the under 18 years +76kg Kumite and achieved a bronze. Ewan Boyd faced an older and more experienced opponent in the U12 Kata and -35kg kumite and narrowly missed winning his first match, while Jaygo Woods gained valuable experience by competing in three rounds of Kata and narrowly missing out on a bronze medal. 

After talking a break from competing due to COVID-19 and starting families, brothers and instructors Zach and Luke Scott found success in their categories. Zach won gold in the senior male +84kg category with comfortable victories in each round. Luke achieved veterans gold Kata in the same manner while also gaining the bronze medal in veterans kumite.

NWKA are no strangers to success in competitive karate. Before their competitive hiatus, they were an extremely successful club. They won countless medals at domestic, regional, national and international level and a large handful of students competing for their country at commonwealth, European and world level. This is just the beginning of their new journey towards success.