Third, fourth placings for Malta in international championship

The Malta Karate Federation has just participated in the fourth International Karate Open in Budapest. This has been the fourth international championship that Malta has been represented by the federation this year.

The national team consisted of five youths and two seniors. Luca and Francesco Debattista, Gabriella Pizzuto, Tyler Tanti and Susan Zammit formed the youth selection. Jason Edwards and Karl Anastasi were the selected senior competitors.

The countries that participated, apart from Malta, were Hungary, Iran, Syria, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Austria, Denmark, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia and Andorra.

The Kata and Kumite sections were divided into different belt categories with some 300 juniors and 100 seniors taking part. The Maltese obtained very good results considering the very high standard displayed by all competitors.

Zammit and Luca Debattista placed third in their respective categories, and Tanti, Francesco Debattista and Pizzuto all placed fourth.

All the juniors took part in Kata and Edwards competed in the Kumite, alongside Anastasi, who took part in the Kata as well.

The Maltese have been undergoing intensive preparation under the national Kata coach, Joe Tanti and the Kumite coach Jason Edwards for the past three months.

The federation secretary, Alexander Pizzuto, was the Maltese official representative alongside the other two national coaches.

The next international karate events this year will be the Mediterranean Championships in Croatia this month and the World Championships in Madrid in November. National technical director Anthony Zammit and athlete Jason Edwards will be representing Malta in these prestigious events, and also in the world congress.

Maestro Santo Torre will accompany the delegation and will act as the coach and advisor. The federation will also hold the national karate championships on December 7 and 8.

The federation thanked Air Malta for its help in sponsoring the flight tickets.