The three-day competition saw teams from 14 countries battling for the top prize, with Jersey’s 7-man team getting through to the semi-finals, where they were knocked out by the Romanian team.
Simonne Sains’s bronze medal came in the Ladies under 60 kg category.
Chief instructor Derek Veitch said: ‘We’re very, very pleased with the result.
It was a really tough competition, and we were up against the best teams in the world, so to finish third is brilliant.’ He added that as well as Sains’s excellent performance, Paul McNamee had been in a very good position to make the podium.
‘Unfortunately he met Oshita Masataka in the quarter-finals of the Kata – he’s the Japanese Open champion!’ And Eddie McCann was complimented on his fighting and his budo spirit by no less a person than Mr Yamada, the Supreme Judge of the Japan Karate Federation and a member of the Japanese Olympic committee.
‘We had a young team – the average age was about 25,’ Veitch said.
‘Everyone really tried hard.
Simonne’s bronze proves that.
We really hadn’t expected anyone to get an individual medal but it all went right on the day.’ Squad: Derek Veitch, David Moss, Nick Norie, Simonne Sains, Paul McNamee, Eddie McCann, John Vibert, Neil O’Donoghue, Jose Correia, Warren Moss, Robbie Andrews.
lThe Shukokai Karate team was sponsored by Emeraude Ferries, La Motte Ford, Jersey Telecom, Jo Correia Decorators, and Classical Gas.
