2019 AU National Championships

The 2019 Australian National Open Karate Tournament was held at the Sutherland District Trade Union Club in Gymea on Sunday 23 June 2019.

At the end of a long and hard day, Anthony Tockar of the North Bondi Karate Dojo emerged victorious. He was accordingly chosen to lead the 5-man Australian team to compete in the World Tournament in November.

Anthony has won the Australian title on a number of occasions in the past and has previously represented Australia at the 10th World Tournament in 2011 and at the 11th World Tournament in 2015. In circumstances where it is a tremendous achievement to be chosen to represent your country at even one World Tournament, managing to do so on three occasions is very rare. Remarkably, a second member of the North Bondi Karate Dojo, namely Reece Henderson, has also been chosen for the third time to represent Australia at the World Tournament. A third member of the Dojo, namely Dinei Daneris, has also been chosen for the Australian team. Daneris, who has emigrated from Brazil to Australia, previously represented Brazil at the World Tournament. Daneris finished in third place at the National Tournament, after emerging victorious in an epic fight against the giant New Zealand champion, Lucas McKinnon, who weighed in at 155 kg.

The fact that three members of the 5-man Australian team are from the North Bondi Karate Dojo is a great tribute to the club, which has established itself as one of the foremost karate dojos in Australia.

Aside from the wonderful results achieved by Anthony Tockar, Dinei Daneris and Reece Henderson, a number of other students from the North Bondi Karate Dojo excelled at the national tournament. Sensei John Barker won third place in the kata (forms) division for adults, while in the 12-15 yrs kata division North Bondi took the first four positions, with 4th place going to Elise Aroney, 3rd place going to Guy Guiney, 2nd place going to Hannah Hunter and 1st place to Samuel Lotter. Tom Guiney was the silver medallist in the 11yrs kata division. In the kumite (fighting) divisions, Elise Aroney was victorious in the 13-14yr age-group, while Brandon Benson fought extremely well to win the over 60 kg division for boys in the13-14 yr age-group. Ben Guiney placed equal third in the under 50 kg division for boys in the 11-12 yr age-group.