World Championship success for not-for-profit Peterborough karate club and its 64-year-old leader
Torikai Martial Arts Association holds regular classes in Werrington and Yaxley.
A not-for-profit Peterborough martial arts club has celebrated World Championship success thanks to two of its members.
Both Lead Instructor, Brian Whatford and student Ben Alexander from ToriKai Martial Arts Association travelled to Rhodes in Greece last week (October 20-26) to take part in the World Karate and Kickboxing Union World Championships representing England.
Brian (64), who is a 7th Dan (A ranking system for skill, gaining a black belt would make a person a 1st Dan) as well as a multiple British Champion, came home with a Gold medal in Kumite (sparring) and three Bronze medals in multiple Kata (forms) categories.
Ben, a purple belt, returned with both a Silver and Bronze in Kumite.
Brian, who runs ToriKai Martial Arts Association along side Neil Flowers, also won a Silver and Gold in the European championships held earlier this year in High Wycombe in the NMAC Championships after being persuaded to return to competition.
He said: “I stopped competing in the late 90s when I was a Great Britain Grand Champion to go out on a high.
"I then got talked back into competing a few years ago; I thought maybe I shouldn’t, my wife said you might make a fool of yourself but I went for it.
"I won a English Championships and a British Championships and I got asked to go to Canada in 2023 for the World Championships, where I managed to get a Bronze and a Silver.
"Then I competed in a few more competitions and myself and a student of mine were invited over to Rhodes.”
Brian began his martial arts training in the early 80s before being invited to take over the ToriKai Martial Arts Association.
The club is run on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of its students from the Loxley Community Centre in Werrington.
They specialise in traditional karate as well as application of Martial Science, including Pressure Points and Bunkai- as certified by the Dragon Society- and are one of only a handful of clubs in Europe certified to teach these techniques dating back to the time of the Samurai.
Brian added: “I want to grow the club for the benefit of people out there. We want to continue to be non-profit but spread our knowledge.
“We always remain students, we will never know anything and we can always still learn a lot from people.”
The club has a number of events coming up, these include an awareness/self defence courses as well as seminar with a Kata Bunkai with Shihan Brian, to which everyone is welcome to come and try out martial arts for themselves, on November 9 between 1pm and 5pm at Hampton Gardens Secondary School.
Further information about the club can be found at https://torikaimartialarts.co.uk/, or Torikai Martial Arts Association on Facebook. To find out more call 07762 343899.