17 Members of the Temple national squad traveled across to Venice for the World Karate Championships on the 3rd of May, as the competition was not until the 6th and 7th there was plenty of time for the team to train together.

At 6.30pm on the 3rd was the first training session which consisted of a fairly brisk "jog" for approx 3 miles half of which was on soft sand, everyone seemed to find it fairly hard going, after training the team then had an excellent meal at the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Next morning at 6.45am the team reluctantly headed back to the beach for more work, this time it was interval training which consisted of 100m sprint, 100m walk then 100m jog for 2 miles, finishing with 3 minutes of shuttle runs. Most of the team preferred this type of training, this program continued until the 5th of May with the team doing 2 sessions per day before meals and free time to relax on the beach or sightsee in Venice, which was super.

When the team went to the sports hall for the weigh-in a few of the team were delighted to see that they had lost a few pounds since arriving in Italy so no one was overweight.

All the heads of WKO then had a meeting to discuss the weekend program, then off to the referees meeting, this year there were no Scottish referees and I would like anyone in the Temple Organization to contact me if they would like to become a trainee referee for our future tournaments as we desperately need you.

I arrived back at our hotel to discover a training session had been organized by members of the team without me asking. Fantastic!

On the first day competing I felt the squad were very nervous but as soon a Scottish fighter went up to compete the whole team gave 100% support and the coaching was superb.

This equals a percentage of 47% which is an increase of 17% on the previous World Championships.

Although some of the team did not get a trophy on this trip they conducted themselves on and off the mat superbly, in my eyes they are true Champions.

Thanks Team

Robert A Smith
National Team Coach

On behalf of the 16 members of the Temple National Squad who recently traveled to Italy for the W.K.O. World Championships, we would like to thank our team coach Robert Smith for all his support throughout the trip.

His constant praise, encouragement and motivation during the year and at the tournament enabled the team to compete at such a high level and achieve world-class standards.

We would also like to thank Robert for giving us the opportunity to attend and compete in such a prestigious event - something many of us had previously considered to be unachievable.

All of the team thoroughly enjoyed the trip and it is an experience which will be in our thoughts for long to come.

The Scottish Squad