Congratulations to Chief Instructor Digger Barnes on a great weekend in Manchester.
This weekend Digger competed in the World Karate & Kickboxing Open Championships in Manchester and came away with a Silver medal.
After the event Digger said “I was so proud to walk out on the mat for the Grand Final wearing my Storm Family Martial Arts colours. We are not a tournament club, we are a Life Skills & Leadership Academy and we teach a multi style syllabus so to make the grand final was a bit of a surprise. I want to be a role model for our young students and for them to see that if they follow our life skills programme (Courage, Determination etc) then they can achieve anything they set their mind to. I hope this success, along with the many awards we have won in recent years, can help them see how it is possible to achieve their own, personal life goals. We will continue to work tirelessly to develop Champions For Life within our Storm academies”
In the Semi Final match digger fought hard to win the match with a convincing 9 – 5 score. We all know how much Digger loves sparring so it was not surprising to see him looking relaxed and smiling all through the fight. His opponent had come to the tournament with a big team so there was a lot of noise in support for his opponent and it was hard to hear the referee during the fight.
The Grand Final saw Digger fighting a very strong competitor about half his age. It was very close all the way through and ended in a 5-5 draw. As the the two fighters couldn’t be separated in normal time they had to compete in one more round to decide the winner. Digger’s opponent took this extra round 2-1 and claimed the Gold. Congratulations to that individual on a well deserved win.
This weekend was Digger’s 50th birthday so to come away with a Silver when fighting much younger opponents is a great achievement and shows the quality of the instructor team we have at Storm. It also shows his wife is a very forgiving lady so Digger would like to say a BIG thank you to Idy as he also shares his birthday with their 2 year old boy Bodhi, so it was a big sacrifice to be away from home this weekend.
Well done to the WKC for putting on such a professional tournament. It was a wonderful atmosphere with great respect shown to all competitors and by all the competitors.
Lastly, thank you to Wokingham & Windsor Instructor Dan McCormack for giving up his weekend to accompany Digger and for doing a great job supporting him through the weekend.
