Windhoek — Shotokan asserted its position as dominant local Karate style when a small band of only 23 fighters managed to bring home 18 medals at the recent Commonwealth Karate Championships held in Johannesburg. This championship had 1500 entries from 15 international Karate organisations, representing 11 countries.

Chief instructor, Sensei Willem Burger said the time to prepare the Namibian team was limited since the invitation to participate was only received in August. That basically left the team with only a month and a half to prepare whereas most of the other Commonwealth participants have been training since the beginning of the year. The Commonwealth Championships took place from 16 to 19 October. The Namibian team returned earlier this week.

The team of 23 karateka was accompanied by Sensei Burger, Wikus Oberholster from Walvis Bay, Valdemar Swart and Hermi van Zyl from Swakopmund and Georg Schurz from Windhoek.

"Thursday morning was used to register all participants for the event. A referee briefing was also held to all attending referees, on the new rules. As Billy Brennan, possibly the highest qualified WKF referee in the world attended the competition, much emphasis was placed on the quality of refereeing" said Burger elaborating on the team and its coaches. "Namibia Shotokan Karate Academy had 5 referees that represented Namibia at this very high level. "The Namibian referees made quite an impact with their standard of refereeing and apart from South Africa which was the host country; Namibia had the highest number of participating referees."

Championship formalities were concluded on Friday with the main event on Saturday when the competition started with team kata and team kumite. "The team kumite was world-class and quickly proved to be a firm favourite, often leading to standing ovations from the crowd", said Burger.

The categories in which the karateka competed were quitelarge, with some categories well in excess of 32 contestants. Namibia managed to win 11 silver medals and 7 bronze medals.

The team from Namibia established a reputation at this championship as a courteous, disciplined team with high standards, and being fiercely competitive.