Following a lengthy period of disruption, particularly affecting recreational and competitive sports, the German Karate Championships for various age groups were held recently. Karate also returned to Sri Lanka. A few days ago, this year’s Sri Lankan National Virtual Kata Championship took place. The organisers came up with something new for this event. Due to the pandemic, this year’s national championships were held virtually via Zoom, unlike last year.
Our founder and president, Shihan Athula Minithanthri, seized the opportunity to take part in this new format. Within a specified timeframe, he recorded the Papuren kata, which had to be uploaded to the Sri Lankan Karate Association’s web portal without any post-processing. Following the judges’ evaluation, it was confirmed today that Shihan Athula took first place in his age group with a total score of 24.16, putting him well ahead of the competition.
Just as he did during his last participation in the Sri Lankan Championships in 1978, he won the gold medal in the kata discipline once again.
We congratulate him warmly on this great success.