A big thank you to Donna Jones – Journalist from Gympie Today for publicising our success at the Queensland State Karate Championships held in Cleveland in Brisbane earlier this month.
Karate group punching above their weight
Donna Jones
International Karate Daigaku Association, Gympie Dojo scored a gaggle of awards at the recent Queensland State Karate Championships held in Cleveland in Brisbane.
The tournament was to select representative Queenslanders for the National Championships in Perth in August.
Sensei Hamid Mostofizadeh was thrilled with the effort put forward by the eight members of IKD who competed.
“We came home with seven gold medals, four silver medals and one bronze.
“IKD-Australia placed seventh out of the 23 clubs competing at the State Titles.
“This is an incredible achievement, because usually you need many more members to place in the top seven clubs in the state,” he said.
Taking home the gold in three categories, kata, kumite and team kata, was Dana Mostofizadeh, who is now a triple State Champion.
Zachariah Belford scored a gold in team kata, bronze in kumite and fourth place in kata.
Damine Mostofizadeh got gold in Team Kata and just missed grabbing bronze in Kata while sibling Diba got a Silver in kumite.
Delara Mostofizadeh got gold in kumite, gold in Kata and gold in Open kumite, also making her a triple State champion.
Brother Dustin scored silver in the U21 Kata and gold in U21 (Under 75kgs) kumite making him the State Champion.
Team mate Sean Reynolds scored a silver in the U21 (Under 85kgs) kumite and Terry Belford just missed out on a podium result in the Kata, placing fourth.
Dustin and Daria were also refereeing, representing IKD at the competition and they will go on to referee at the National Championships.
Hamid said he was also elected as Queensland state coach earlier this year, so he will also be attending the competition meaning Gympie would be well-represented at the Australian National Championships, contributing a state coach, three referees and eight athletes.
