Tag Archives: competitions

Competition

Solis Ortus Students Represent South Africa at Zone 6 Tournament

What an amazing AND most scary experience.  With the honour of representing our country, Elmien , Heilethe and I entered the Portuguese hall in Johannesburg with mixed emotions.  Elmien was the more “relaxed” one as she had done this before, but the same could not be said for the rest of us.

Thursday we spent about 4 hours at the hall for weigh in and team speeches’ by Sensei Ian le Roux. We got to meet our coaches and did roll call.

Friday met us with some nerves as we spent the day supporting our team and seeing the other countries’ karatekas for the first time. Botswana entered with good spirit. Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique were there as well.

All the children, juniors and cadets competed that day and the quality was of an incredibly higher standard than what we are used to seeing on regional’s and provincials…..even nationals.  I could not believe the speed that the katas were performed with.  Absolutely amazing!

Then Saturday hit us and the butterflies became dragons.  Fire breathing,  evil, HUGE dragons. As we arrived we were told all veterans (that’s me and Heilethe) were on first. We had hardly time to defrost as we reported to our floors and did our stuff.

As most competitors feel after an event like this, it was with mixed emotions – a feeling one could have done better and a feeling of pride as we know we did our best at the time, and we did something we never thought we would ever do…REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY..and also..REPRESENT OUR CLUB, which is probably the one thing one feels the most proud about.

The standard I saw on that tournament made me even more determined to improve on my karate and also showed me I still have a very long road to go as far as my own standard is concerned. It also showed me that our club can definitely compare to the best in SA as our Sensei definitely knows his karate as he was one of the coaches for the children/cadet and junior team and many turned to him for advice. It made me very proud to tell other karatekas I belong to Solis Ortus, and Sensei Eugene Oosthuizen, a name many recognised, was MY Sensei.

Competition

KSA Children, Cadet and Junior Championship

This past weekend Solis Ortus attended the KSA Nationals with 5 of its students.  Nobody had any idea what time they will compete, thus the days were long and at times frustrating.  Nevertheless, our 5 entries performed well and we received 4 medals overall.

Thank you too all the karatekas and their parents who endures the hard work and long wait.

Very proud of each and every Solis Ortus athlete.

OSS

Competition

23rd Eagles Champs

With serious focused and fit karateka, our Solis Ortus karate competitors took part this past Saturday 28th February 2015 in the 23rd Eagles Karate Challenge held at Wits University Johannesburg. These determined karateka had been training hard for this since the beginning of the year and it paid off. We had 14 entries in 25 divisions. Cullin Elson recently qualified as a Regional Judge and was his first time present too as a judge. Sensei Lillian Mynhardt and Sensei Adrian Bonafede assisted with the coaching. Our sensei Eugene Oosthuizen was also present to help with coaching and inspire our karateka. It was a great day with good results that we can be proud of.

To all of you who did not get a placing we are still proud of you, well done!

Thank you for the coaching, judging and sensei Eugene for inspiring us to better heights. Solis Ortus we are proud of you!

Written by Adrian Bonafede