PETER Hollowood Martial Arts, in Mornington, had an astounding 21 athletes represent Victoria at the Australian National Karate Championships over the weekend of Friday 3 August.
The representatives had trained all year for the national championships in Caloundra, QLD and their hard-work was duly repaid with five of them claiming individual gold medals in Kumite, a form of point sparring.
On top of their individual performances, the Mornington dojo athletes claimed a further five team gold medals and a silver team medal across the competition.
Sensei Peter Hollowood, who is also a state coach, said the “fantastic results” came as no surprise with the amount of training his students put in throughout the year.
“My athletes train at the highest level and deserve all the recognition for their hard work,” he said.
“They all went up as a team and competed as a team. It was a good tournament up there and they were all very excited about their results as they’ve been training for such a long time.”
Sensei Peter’s son, Dean Hollowood, 23, was one of the five athletes to claim an individual gold medal.
Dean claimed gold in the Senior Men’s (67kg) competition as well as a team gold medal for his performance at the nationals, and has been selected to compete at the World Championships in Madrid, Spain in November.
Dean will be travelling to Chile in September for a competition and then off to Noumea for a National training camp prior to the World Championships.
“He’s missed out on four World Championships but he’s stuck with it and finally broken through,” Sensei Peter said. “It’s great to see the hard work payed off.”
The Mornington dojo claimed a further four gold medals.
Aaliyah Zuniga won the Female Cadet (14-15 years) and earned a Team Gold medal; Ally Lourensz won the Female 12-13 years and a Team Gold medal; Mason Riley won the Junior Male (16-17 years) and a Team Silver medal; and Alex Steer won the Cadet Male (14-15 years) and a Team Gold medal.
Athletes from the dojo won another 11 bronze and silver individual medals, with some of them having their first attempt at the national competition.
Alex Hutchison won a Team Gold medal and two individual silver medals; Zac Dean won two silver medals and a bronze medal; Mathew Riley won a silver medal; Lily White won a silver medal; Ceara Taylor won a bronze medal; Ignatius Stow won a bronze medal; Nathan Pool won a bronze medal; and Erin Walsh won a bronze medal.
Sensei Peter said it was a great achievement for all involved, with the dojo’s representatives already talking about next year’s national championships.
