Karate: World Kimura Shukokai Championship-Cafrine strikes kata bronze |14 October 2004

Cafrine, 37, and who only joined the Kimura Shukokai School last year after having spent 18 years practising the Shotokan style, competed in the veteran brown belt division.
 
There were 21 competitors in this division.

Cafrine, who in his long and colourful career has competed in a number of international  competitions including the Fourth Indian Ocean Islands Games in Reunion in 1998 and the Shotokan European Championship in 1994, told Sports Nation  on Tuesday during a training session that "I'm happy with my performance and even happier to win a bronze medal in the kata event. The competition was really tough.
 
It's a pity, I did not get a good placing in the kumite (fighting) as I lost my first fight (0-1 to Peter Bierman) in the second round," said Cafrine, who noted that he was looking forward to continue practising the Shukokai style.

"My next aim is to win a gold medal in the next World Championship in two years' time in Finland," added a proud Cafrine.
 
In the individual kata, Cafrine won in the first three rounds against American Tim Marazo, South African Mally Johes and Zimbabwean Paul Covil. He then lost to German Mike Werner, but grabbed two victories in the repêchage round to win the bronze medal.

Head instructor Gabriel Victor said that he was happy with his students' performance.

"As always, the championship was of a very high level with more than 2,000 karatekas taking to the mat. I think that my students performed well even though there is still more  room for improvement. Like I said before leaving, international experience is always of great value to any sport and had my team been exposed to more high level competitions over the years, we could have done much better," he said.

Apart from Cafrine and Victor, six other karatekas – Jocelyn Cupidon, Saule Azemia, Andy Léon, Gretel Valentin, Elsa Cupidon and Daniel Thérésine – made the trip to South Africa and their results were rather encouraging.

In the men's 80-kg kumite, Jocelyn Cupidon lost both his fights on identical 2-0 scores to Portuguese Nuno Dias and Briton Audine Daniels. Both Dias and Daniels reached the final.

As for Saule Azemia, he won a bye straight into the second round and lost 2-6 to Carl Spalding of Ireland.

Andy Léon, for his part, lost his 70-kg bout 1-5 to John Pace of the United Kingdom.

In the light weight division for girls 16-17 years old, Elsa Cupidon won her first round bout on a tight 3-2 score against Briton Maxine Wynter before losing 1-2 to Heidi Laakso of Finland.

In the kata event, Elsa Cupidon lost to Viola Proctor of South Africa in the first round.

In the girls (15-16 years old) heavyweight category, Gretel Valentin got the better of Janette Campos of United States on a 3-2 score in the first round but then lost in the second to Simone Le Roux of South Africa.

Daniel Thérésine, who competed in the individual kata for boys 16-17 years, clinched victory against Swedish Einer Fessy before being eliminated by Gustave Kilk of Estonia.

In kumite, Thérésine had to abandon his fight against Samuel Malon of South Africa with a dislocated thumb.

The local delegation returned home on Monday night.
A total of 19 countries competed in the biennial competition.

C. J.