The Antigua & Barbuda Karate Association (ABKA) is to be represented by a team of 13 for the upcoming 11th Pan American Karate Championships slated for August 14 – 15, 2010 in Georgetown, Guyana. The team will be made up of 10 black belts and three brown belts. The team captains for Kata are Sensei Iza Goodwin, a fourth degree black belt and the highest ranking female in Shotokan in Antigua, and Sensei Michael Gamble, a third degree black belt.
Sensei Iza and Sensei Michael are both gold medallists in Caribbean competitions. Sensei Iza last won the women’s Kumite Caribbean championship in 2005 along with Sensei Michael who became the male Caribbean Champion in kumite. Sensei Iza was part of the team that won the Caribbean team karate championship in 2005; then dubbed the “Golden Girls”. The Li family is contributing three members of the team and the manager. Tiffani, Sarah and Nicholas Li are first-degree black belts in Shotokan and will be competing for the first time on a Shotokan team. Their father, John Li, is a karateka himself having trained in Guyana.
The three brown belts are Jonathan Douglas, who at nine years old is the youngest on the team, Shakeema Edwards and Denis Jules. The other black belts are Cesaire Hampson, also one of the competitors in the Talented Teen Show; Ashton Roscoe Fergusson, who is training to be a doctor when he is not in dojo training, will also compete. He is a student of the American University of Antigua (AUA). Mark Douglas, the father of Jonathan Douglas, is another black belt who will be vying for medals in Guyana. Arthur Bird, the oldest member of the team, is competing in the newly created senior’s category. Bird is an experienced competitor. To meet expenses for send the team, upcoming fundraising events will include a j’ouvert breakfast at the Antigua Shotokan Karate Club on the corner of Cross and Nevis Streets from 6 am to 9 am.