RED Rangers’ martial artist Pia Castray took the three-foot-tall trophy as the traditional weapons ‘grand champion’ of the 16th International Sports Karate Association 2011 World Cup championships recently.
Held once every four years, the 2011 competition brought together the best martial artists from Korea, New Zealand, Ireland, Egypt, Nepal, Fiji, India and Australia to the Whitlam Indoor Centre in Liverpool.
The other Filipino to win a place at the championship was 12-year-old Rick Paras, who finished third in the ‘kata’ portion.
Castray, after taking the ‘grand champion’ title as the best-of-the-best overall in the weapons section of the tournament, also won the ‘kata’ championship in her class.
The championships attracted 1,038 martial artists who took to the mats over three full days of competition.
”Pia was outstanding, and should have been awarded the title of grand champion in ‘kata’ as well,” said Red Rangers’ chief instructor and 9th dan sikaran-arnis martial artist Jesse Diestro [who is also a Filipino] ”The judges simply saw it the other way.
”But it was a good ending for Pia in 2011,” Diestro added.
Pia Castray is completing a sports scholarship at Macquarie University Sports this year. She also received a Hills Excellence in Youth Award for her achievements in sports.
Pia is the daughter of John and Cristina Castray, of Pennant Hills, NSW.