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JKA World Championships (Switzerland) report for 1998
The 11th JKA Karate World Championship held in Switzerland on 11/ 12 July 1998 , was a major success for South Africa in general, and in particular for Malcolm Dorfman and the members of his JKA S.A. Karate Union.
In junior divisions, with 3 individual gold, 2 individual silver, and 6 individual bronze medals, plus 2 team gold and one team silver medal, Malcolm Dorfman’s JKA S.A. Karate Union team emerged as the top overall national team at the JKA World Championships.
In the senior divisions, with 4 individual medals and 2 team medals, the JKA S.A. Karate Union team were second overall to Japan.
Saville Dorfman took the JKA world title in the Under 14 Male Kata, for the second successive JKA World Championship, giving him his 4th world title of his karate career.
The 3-man unison kata team of Saville Dorfman, Dino Covotsos and Warran Dukas claimed the Under 16 team title, which gave Saville his 2nd gold medal in this championship.
Wilna-mari Coetzee took the JKA world title in the Under 18 Female Kumite, for the second successive JKA World Championship.
Stacey-Lee Bolon won the title in the Under 14 Female Kata, her first gold in international tournament.
The Under 12 unison kata team of Ryan Fransman, Richard Cantor and Nikita Friedman clinched the fifth gold medal for South Africa.
Gabrielle Najjar won a silver medal for Under 18 Female Kata, Socrates Oosthuizen for Under 18 Male Kumite. Another silver medal was won by the Under 14 kata team of Stacey-Lee Bolon, Chris Cruywagen and Tristan Rouillard.
Stacey-Lee Bolon received her third medal of the championship with a bronze in Under 14 Female Kumite. Other bronze medallists were Nikita Friedman in Under 12 Female Kata, Jadi Mgandela in Under 12 Female Kumite, Theuns Lategan in Under 16 Male Kumite, Delene Bekker in Under 16 Female Kumite and Stephanus De Klerk in Under 18 Male Kumite.
Shane Dorfman took the bronze medal in the senior Kumite section, the premier event of this world championship, Shane Dorfman’s spectacular fighting ability and victories round after round, had the crowd enthusiastically screaming their support. A highly contentious decision by the Japanese judge in the semi-final round between Shane and the Japanese contestant, which cost Shane the gold medal, had the crowd up in arms in disapproval.
Lisa Greenspan took bronze in the Senior Female Kata, beaten into 3rd place by the two Japanese contestants.
Ian Duncan, in the veteran events, took silver for Kumite and bronze for kata.
Both the senior unison male kata team of Michael Roetz, Tyrone Theodorides and Bryan Dukas and the female Kumite team of Madelein Van Tonder, Carla De Almeida and Ananka Loubser took bronze medals in the team events.
A noteworthy point, is that with the individual medals attained at this world championship, both Shane and Lisa have now been individual medallists in the last three JKA world championships, and are probably the only two contestants in the world to have achieved this feat.