MEMBERS of a karate club based in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, flexed their might in the recent 3rd ABR Cup Karate Championships and other local karate tournaments.
SJDM karatekas show promise
The young guns were led by Steven Jhudiel Morales, Solara Uriel Morales, and Zemira Zaigen Gawad Daz and coached by Mary Anne Guillermo, a licensed coach by Karate Pilipinas.
Morales, 12, was a kata and kumite gold medalists in the recent Karate Pilipinas National Championships held at the Mall of Asia Arena. He also dominated the kumite and kata division of the International Shotokan Karate Federation-Philippine Shotokan Karate Federation (ISKF-PSKI) Olongapo Karatedo Championships last June, and won the 12-13-year-old and 14-15-year-old boys division of the ABR Cup.

The eight-year-old Solora meanwhile, won the kata girls division of the ABR Cup, bagged a silver in kumite and team kata, and bronze in team kumite.
Gawad Daz is also eight years old, and captured a silver medal in the 6-7-year-old kata division of the ISKF-PSKI Olongapo Invitational Karatedo Championships.
All three karatekas are members of the ISKF-PSKI in San Jose Del Monte.
“They really wanted to follow the footsteps of our Sensei Adora Aquino, a former national team member,” said Guillermo. “These kids will grow with a lot of potentials to become the next Junna Tsukii and possibly, become world champions someday.”
Aquino bagged a bronze medal in the 2003 Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam, a double gold medal winner in the 2019 World Police and Fire Games held in Chengdu, China, and an active member of Karate Pilipinas technical official.
Other members of the club are Nicel Ezra Villegas (13 years old), and Julia Claret Bintulan (14 years old), both multiple medal winners in both kata and kumite competitions during the 2018 and 2019 Batang Pinoy.
The club’s campaign is supported by the local government unit headed by Mayor Arthur Robles, Dr. Dennis Booth, and Luis Gutierrez.
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