All ages compete in annual karate tournament
The 26th annual Four Valleys of the Sun Open Karate Championships was held Saturday at Southwest High School Gymnasium.
Over 400 competitors from dozens of schools ranging from the Imperial Valley, Arizona, San Diego, Los Angeles, Coachella, Palm Springs and Mexicali.
Hosted by K.W. Karate and Tae Kwon Do Center, the tournament gave competitors a chance to show their skills in three categories: forms, weapons and sparring.
Taking home the 6-foot grand championship trophies this year was Che Wong of Arizona, Ryan Gamble of San Diego and Amy Hannibal of San Diego. The three grand champion trophies were awarded to overall winners of the junior and senior sparring and form events.
Some of the tournament winners include Jeremiah Vallarta, who placed first in the Kata boys’ 5-and-under all belts division, followed by Evan Alvarez in second place and Ben Granados and Joshua Cattle who tied for third place.
For the Kata boys’ age 6 and 7 white, yellow and orange belt division, Marco Molina finished in first placed, with Francisco Munoz and Angelo Tamarez placing second and third, respectively.
In the Kata boys’ ages 8 to 10 division, Jacob Abatti placed first while Julius Bosh placed second.
For the Kata women’s age 17 and older Kata division, Audi Garrison finished in first place with an overall score of 26.6.
In the boys ages 6 to 7 sparring division, Angelo Tabarez took first place honors, followed by Axel Rodriguez in second place and Maher Bhansali and Jorge Morales tied for third place.
Kelia Tabarez finished in first place for the girls’ 8 to 10 white, yellow and orange sparring division, followed by Alysa Chacon in second place and Kadyn Valdez and Sara Granados tied for third place.
In the girls’ ages 8 to 10 red, brown and black belt sparring division, Kianah Alvarez finished in first place, followed by Ana Chavez in second place and Ellison Strahm and Pheebe Gonzalez both at third place.
“It was really fun. I’ve been doing this since I was really little but it’s definitely challenging. It’s a really good experience,” said Angelique Abatti, a 13-year-old student of K.W. Karate in El Centro, on her experience competing in the tournament.
In her 10th year participating in the Karate Championships, Abatti stated she did not expect to do well in her sparring match although ended up finishing in first place for her age division.
“She was really challenging because she had a lot of reach so she could hit me in the head, so I had to keep up with that,” explained the 13-year-old on her opponent in her final match of the tournament.
Abatti is just one of the many local students Clara Melendrez hopes the tournament benefits.
“Being a martial artist for 38 years, I always had to go out to San Diego and Los Angeles, so I figured why not bring a quality tournament to this area,” explained Melendrez on why she first organized the tournament.
Melendrez, who is also the Master Instructor at K.W. Karate, hopes the tournament acts as stepping stone students can use to compete in a state or national tournament.