Karate team returns home with gold and silver medals
Guyana Chronicle
August 18, 2004
THE National karate team returned home with one gold and one silver medals from the Pan-American Championships staged in Panama, last week.
Richard Rohoman struck gold in kumite (sparring) and silver in kata (choreographed forms of offence and defence) in the 14-15 years category.
He won all his five fights, competing among 28 entrants, but was edged out in the kata by a Canadian.
However, team-mate Krysten Sewett bowed out in the first round, losing to a Jamaican in the kumite. She stumbled in her kata presentation, which cost her the match.
According to a release from the Guyana Japan Karate Association, she was the favourite to cart off the gold in her division.
Competing in the senior category, Tracy Gomes also lost in the first round to the Canadian Pan-Am champion.
Guyana had a four-member team to the biennial championships, staged by the International Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF) and the Japan Karate Association (JKA).
The members were Manager Charles Woon-A-Tai, who was also an official at the championships, Rohoman, Sewett and chaperone/competitor Gomes.
Some 16 countries fielded teams, including the USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize and some Caribbean countries, tallying some 300 competitors in the junior categories. The senior division was limited to four competitors each for males and females per country in the individual competition.
Mexico had 70-strong contingent, Jamaica 50, Venezuela 40.
USA won the female and male teams kumite and the men’s kata, while Canada carted off the female team and individual kata and men’s kata.
Meanwhile, a seven-member team will attend the World Karate Federation Junior Pan-American Championships from August 30 to October 6.
GUYANA team: Richard Rohoman holds the name plaque, with Krysten Sewett at his right and next to her Tracy Gomes (in sun glasses).