France added: “I felt honoured to be recognised within our community for my sporting achievements.

“And I am also excited that it may encourage others to learn about karate and consider doing it themselves.” All of Costantino’s athletes have been working hard since the World Shoto Cup, with a very special dignatory arriving in Geraldton early next year before another full year of national and international competition.

“We have our chief instructor, Takahashi Shihan, coming to Geraldton for a seminar and gradings in February,” France said.

“Then in March we have the national titles at the Gold Coast. We will be hosting visiting highcalibre instructors from both Japan and Canada at our nationals.

“In June we have our State titles, being held in the South West.

“Following that, there is a training camp in Japan — called a gasshuku — being held in September.” Despite their successes, the duo are not content to rest on their laurels.

​Along with respect, a major component of martial arts is the art of continuous learning.

“I felt relaxed, prepared and confident at the world titles in South Africa due to my time and effort dedicated prior to the event,” France said.

Geraldton Guardian (25 Nov 2016)
​Justin Fris

Ger­ald­ton has no short­age of in­ter­na­tional karate cham­pi­ons, with sev­eral lo­cals re­cently rep­re­sent­ing Aus­tralia at the In­ter­na­tional Sho­tokan Karate Fed­er­a­tion World Shoto Cup in South Africa.
Ali­cia France (se­niors), An­to­nio Pri­olo (ju­niors) and Ash­lea Ra­masamy (ju­niors) all per­formed out­stand­ingly for their coun­try, with Aus­tralia caus­ing a de­gree of sur­prise at the ti­tles.
Pri­olo, who com­peted in the ju­nior com­po­nent of the ti­tles, re­ceived three gold medals (in­di­vid­ual fight­ing, in­di­vid­ual kata and team kata).
Ra­masamy re­ceived a bronze medal in her in­di­vid­ual kata event, and a gold medal in the team fight­ing.
France re­ceived bronze medals in the in­di­vid­ual kata and team fight­ing, cou­pled with a gold medal in the se­nior women’s team kata.
Lo­cal in­struc­tor Pasco Costantino, who trav­elled with the team, was im­mensely proud of their ef­forts.
“The ti­tles are held ev­ery four years,” he said.
“We had a big con­tin­gent of ju­niors (11) made up of the 29 peo­ple who went.”
The women’s se­nior team backed up their in­au­gu­ral dis­play at the 2012 world ti­tles, much to the de­light of Costantino.​
“The women’s se­nior team’s first ap­pear­ance at the world ti­tles was in the Philip­pines back in 2012 — and they won,” he said.

“We thought the next ti­tles would be a lot tougher.
“To their credit, they did it backto-back. It was ex­tra­or­di­nary what they achieved.”
France, Pri­olo and Ra­masamy are all in­cred­i­bly ded­i­cated to their craft.
While oth­ers may be out so­cial­is­ing, they are reg­u­larly train­ing — per­fect­ing a craft where learn­ing never ceases.
“It’s some­thing you can never stop learn­ing about,” France said.
“I say it’s more like a way of life, rather than a sport.
“Karate teaches you all sorts of as­pects of dis­ci­pline which you can trans­late into ev­ery­day life.”
Con­stantino said, “For me per­son­ally, my big­gest buzz is see­ing these guys achieve.
“It makes ev­ery­thing worth­while.
“Most of their friends are prob­a­bly out at the beach or hav­ing a good time, yet they are train­ing.
“That’s their com­mit­ment to train­ing which ev­ery­one must abide by (if they wish to suc­ceed long-term).”

"Karate teaches you all sorts of as­pects of dis­ci­pline which you can trans­late into ev­ery­day life." Ali­cia France

Geraldton Guardian (9 Sept 2016)
Justin Fris

​4th Prize: Geraldton Karate Academy 1 Term Karate Lessons 
Ticket number 00258: Cherie Goode

5th Prize: IGA Voucher $60 
Ticket number 00514: Alicia France

6th Prize: Geraldton Fruit & Vege $50 Voucher
Ticket number 00577: A Suresh

7th Prize: Geraldton Fruit & Vege $50 Voucher 
Ticket number 00012: H Oliver

Regards,

​Alicia France

A team of students from the Geraldton Karate Academy has won a swag of medals at the sixth Traditional Shotokan Karate-do Federation Australian National Titles in Victoria.

Every member of the nine-person team walked away with at least one medal and sensei Pasco Constantine said he was extremely pleased with their efforts.
In a further boost for karate in Geraldton, three of the team members – Antonio Priolo, Ashlea Ramasamy and Alicia France – were selected to represent Australia at the ISKF World Shoto Cup in Cape Town, South Africa, in August.
For the juniors, Antonio received the junior male spirit award after finishing second in kata, a discipline which requires competitors to perform a detailed patterns of movements, and first in kumite (fighting) in his division.

Ashlea also impressed, finishing third in kata and first in kumite, despite competing with a broken foot, and she duly received the junior female spirit award.
The two other members of the junior squad, Carrissa and Kynan O’Brien, both finished third in their respective divisions for kumite, while Kynan also placed third for kata.
In the seniors, Wendy Surawski finished second in her kumite division, while France placed third in both of the open black belt women’s kata and kumite events.
Meanwhile, Ashlea, France and Cherie Goode finished second in the dojo team kata to round out a successful two days of competition.

Geraldton Guardian (2 Apr 2016)
​Matthew Woodley