The talented, gifted students at NWU Karate once again did their club proud by bringing home an astonishing 19th consecutive USSA (University Sports South Africa) title last month.

This USSA tournament was held in Secunda from 29 to 30 June and, under the tutelage of Sensei Johan van Tonder, they managed to beat all comers in the two-day event.

Both the men and women showed what they are made of as they racked up a total of 51 points to take the gold spot.

Vaal University of Technology (VUT) took the second spot with 25 points and the University of Pretoria took third, ending on 22 points. NWU Mahikeng also performed well taking the fourth spot on 20 points.

Brandon Shepherd, Coenraad Berrange and Ockert de Villiers won gold in the men’s team kata section. A fantastic team effort also saw NWU take home gold in the over-84 kumite section. Shepherd also took gold in the under-60 kumite event while also bagging silver in the individual kata event. Gert Coetzee took gold in the under-65 development kumite section with Ockert de Villiers       (under-67 kumite) and Coenraad Berrange (under-75 kumite) also claimed the top spot in their respective individual events.

The NWU women in the team kata section also took gold with Michelle Botes, Esmari Rood and Alex Correia stepping up their game. Botes took silver in the individual kata section while Lara de Wet did the same in the development kata event.

De Wet redeemed herself in the under-55 development kumite event with gold. The young Nthabing Thabane claimed a silver medal for the NWU in the under-50 category with Leandri Lombard also taking second place in the under-55 kumite. Lereze Marais shone in the under-61 category with a silver medal. In the under-68 kumite category, Esmarie Rood (gold) and Aneke Grundling (silver) were the only participants in the section and faced off against each other for the top prize. In the over-68 kumite section, Kiah Bengis (gold), Claudia Correia (silver) and Alex Correia (bronze) took podium positions to solidify the NWU’s stunning effort. To top it all off, Bengis, Rood and Marais took home gold in the team kumite section.

‘It is a wonderful achievement. We lost a couple of talented students this year but the new students, in combination with the experienced ones,  made for a solid team. Everything just fell into place in the end. It gets a little harder each year but we once again proved that we are the best,’ said Sensei Van Tonder.

He also emphasised the fantastic work that the sports scientist, Sean van Niekerk, had done in preparing the team for the tournament.

‘Sean did a great job in making sure that our team was ready for the tournament and all the hard work paid off.’