by Sensei Trevor Roberts of the Shotokan Karate Budokai headquarters in Australia was very impressed with the performance of our Karate team to the Queensland Summer Championships last month.
Speaking during the VI PNG Open Karate Championships, Sensei Roberts said that he was quite impressed with the performance of the athletes and especially with Dominic Sipapi who “slaughtered” a “prima donna” who had just returned from the world championships, 7 points to 3.
“We have a couple prima donnas in Australia. A prima donna is person thinks that they are better than what they are, and one particular gentleman had just come back from the world championships and he was strutting around in the dojo…all Saturday, in just a little top…and because this guy thought he was better than everyone else, he had the right to do what he wanted…”
The next day he had to fight and managed to make it to the first round and then he had to go up against Dominic and was defeated.
Sensei Trevor said Dominic slaughtered the prima donna 7 points to 3 and as a referee he could not coach or do anything but inside he was going “yes!”
It gave him absolute great pleasure seeing someone like Dominic, who is a Kyu grade, come through.
He said he could not watch all the athletes but he was very impressed with their performances.
The team bagged a total of seven medals including four gold and three silver with Dominic and Doris Karamo taking gold in their respective Kyu kumité divisions and the open, while Cyrstal Mari and Julius Piku took bronze in their events.
Piku also competed in Kata against 16 strong competitors and came seventh.
