Leigh Park karate club honours area's war heroes at gruelling grading
Members of the Leigh Park-based PSKO Karate all wore red poppies on their white karate uniform as they displayed their skills during their latest grading exam on Remembrance Sunday.
It was the first time the club's testing date had fallen on the nationwide commemoration, which was this year marking 100 years since the end of the First World War.
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Hide AdStudents completed a series of gruelling tasks from exercises and showing off their kicks and punches, to displaying their self-defence techniques and performing kata '“ a traditional fixed routine of blocks, kicks and punches '“ before the successful ones were awarded their new belts.
Samantha Lewington, one of the club's black belt instructors oversaw, the grading and was touched by the students' display of patriotic pride.
She said: '˜Grading day always falls on a Sunday every four months and this is the first time we have worn poppies during a grading day in Remembrance.
'˜Grading day is a memorable day, students often tell us they remember these days their whole lives. But this Sunday's was extra special.
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Hide Ad'˜Together, our chief instructor Micheal Fletcher, event coordinator Louise Mcclelland, myself, the students and their parents felt everyone being involved together in the 100th Remembrance would be significant in continuing the memories of our ancestors and the sacrifices they made for us, their future generations.'
PSKO Karate is based at St Michael and All Saints Church, with evening classes running Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
For details, search '˜PSKO Karate Havant' on Facebook.
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