Geraldton Guardian News: Strict training pays off at world titles

Ashlea Ramasamy, chief instructor Takahashi Shihan, Antonio Priolo and Alicia France performed outstandingly at the recent world championships. Picture: Pasco Constantino

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