In October, Belize will make a second attempt at capturing the world cup in the Shotokan tournament. The team has been preparing for the upcoming match since last year. A total of fifteen karetekas are scheduled to compete in Canada and they consist of five adults and ten youths but they have got to get there for them to have any chances of bringing back home the gold. That is why the team has also been very much involved in fund raising drives that they hope will raise $53,000. They have already managed to raise close to ten thousand dollars and now they are counting on you to make their dream come through.
Leonard Nunez, Karate Instructor
“This is the second World Show Cup tournament we will be attending. The first one was in Philadelphia in 1992. We did pretty well but I believe this time we can do much much better, especially after the past tournament in Panama where we reached the semi-finals and I was disqualified for excessive contact so I believe the students can do well this time.”
Terry Wright, Parent/Team member
“The training has been increasing in momentum. I think right now we’ve
gotten to a peak. The kids are working very hard, very dedicated. Almost every day they are training hard.
Even just being involved in any team sport because there is confidence and team building qualities and things. But karate in general is a wonderful discipline and it is about body fitness but mental discipline as well.”
Leonard Nunez,
“Very few people are interested in karate. The discipline is probably too rigorous for them so they get discouraged after a while. So many parents or people don’t know much about karate and we wish that through this media they get exposed to professional karate.”
Like we said the karate team which is a member of the Belize Shotokan Karate Association has been holding fund raising drives to get the proceeds needed for them to travel abroad to compete in the world cup tournament. If you would like to assist, you can reach the organizers at 223 – 0220, 223 – 1461 or 622 – 9672.
