Four members of Barbados’ national karate team narrowly missed out on automatically qualifying for next month’s Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games.
Joseph Tseu, Kodie King, Shannan Skeete and Ric-Anne Brathwaite, were named as reserves, after competing in the CAC Qualifiers in the Dominican Republic from April 16 to 18.
Tseu is the first reserve for the men’s kata, while King (84kg kumite), Skeete (61kg kumite) and Brathwaite (68 kg) are second reserves in their respective events.
They will qualify as replacements if any competitors drop out of the CAC Games, scheduled to be held from July 24 to August 8 in the Dominican Republic.
Despite failing to qualify for the regional event, assistant coach Corey Greaves, who accompanied the team to the Qualifiers along with head coach Cameron King, told Barbados TODAY that while they did not fully achieve their objectives, the performance was creditable.
“We didn’t quite get the results that we wanted as in a qualifying position, but we are reserve 1 and reserve 2 in some of the disciplines, so we fared ok. Now we just have to wait and see if anyone drops out, so we can slot into the qualifying positions.”
“This one, everyone did better in terms of how they performed.You had more fights, so there wasn’t a one, two, three in this particular qualifier.
Seven positions were up for qualification, with one of the qualifying positions being automatically going to the Dominican Republic which is the eighth position. So seven were up for grabs and you just were fighting for those seven positions,” Greaves said.
“If you didn’t get one of the four automatic positions, you went into a round robin and then you competed for the three other places.”
Greaves maintained that the reserves will remain active ahead of the Games this summer, in case they are called upon to compete at the Games.
“We will return home and continue to train. Some of them have to maintain a weight class, because in sports karate there is a weight class that you have to get into for kumite, which is the sparring aspect,” he explained.
While Greaves believes the future of karate on the island is bright, he expressed concern about the sport’s rate of development in Barbados.
“The sport is getting bigger and many of the other martial arts disciplines are looking to try to get into it. Before, it was specifically a case of competing in your discipline, but with the World Karate Federation opening a pathway for more of the martial arts to actually get into sports karate, more people are looking to get into it.”
“It’s not progressing as fast as I would like. Mexico and the other Spanish speaking countries, they bring 20 plus people to these events, but Barbados is at the most traveling with 10. So when you have 14 places that may be available in different disciplines or categories, Barbados can only compete for 10 because we don’t have the numbers to go up against them, “ Greaves lamented.
“Caribbean wise it has always been small numbers, but the English speaking Caribbean on a whole, not just Barbados, is getting more and more people involved in sports karate, and it is a pathway for a lot of the members of the younger generation who are looking for the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games, rather than the traditional side of karate.”
(KH)
