If having his family’s support during the 2013 World Cup - 30th Japan Open Koshiki Karatedo Championship was uplifting for Nick King, then the results achieved by his team of 12 left him feeling ecstatic.
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Nick won a bronze medal in the male open black belt cruiserweight division (72-82kg), Lisa Longhurst was first in her kata and third in the open womens’ black belt lightweight division, Matthew Leggett came third in the veteran’s division, Kymberleigh Mitchell won third place in the women’s open and Sam Dillon won second place in the under-8s division for his fighting.
The competition was held at the Zaoh B&G Marine Centre Gymnasium in Miyagi, Japan on the weekend of September 21-22.
It drew about 300 international competitors, but the highlight for Nick was having his family about him.
“I had my wife in my corner, it was absolutely brilliant,” Nick said.
“Both my kids were in every single photo; everybody loved them.
“There were a few big crazy incidents in the competition in divisions leading up to mine – there were a few knockouts and things like that ... When I finished the competition I just wanted to know where the kids were and Laura said she didn’t force them to watch me.
“It was really quite special to have my whole family there – and out of the all the countries in the world, I was the only one who brought my family.
Nick said Zaoh was one of the hardest-hit areas in Japan by the recent tsunami and a lot of the Japanese fighters came from that area.
“They thought they’d still hold the championships there to give a little more energy into the area, so to speak,” he said.
Nick said he was thrilled with his team’s results.
“I’m very excited. It’s an international event and like I told the guys, it’s a step up. We did have a lot of guys who were competing ... who put a lot of effort and training into it but not realising how much of a big jump it is from competitions in Australia to those overseas.”
"At the formal ceremonial dinner, they started the night off by congratulating the Australian team and also (spoke) to my wife and to my family and to my kids and my mother and my auntie who came also; saying that it was really good to bring a family to such a world championship event.”
“Now we’ve got to train up for Russia. The next world championships that we follow is there and I think it is in September next year.”
In the meantime, the martial artists have another competition in Newcastle at the end of this year and more national comps next year to gain selection for the international team, “so there is still a lot more hard work to go”.
Nick came back a bit bruised and battered but there was no time for nursing wounds.
“I flew in on Sunday and I was back on the mat on Monday training,” he said.
