Tom's International Karate Journey
Donation protected
Thank you for reading my story. My name is Tom. I am 13 and have been doing karate since I was 4. I was a really energetic child and it's helped me with my confidence and focus. I started competing when I was 9 when I was a brown belt and found that I really enjoyed the atmosphere of competitions. As I was quite successful was selected to be part of the England Kata team.
I love karate but success does not come without a lot of sacrifices. I train for an hour before school and two hours after school. A normal day starts at 6.30 with a run and core exercises. I then have a kata lesson online and do an extra hour of practice. As a result of this (and growing) , I am always hungry! I have to be careful as I am gluten, dairy and refined sugar intolerant too.
During lockdown, I didn't stop and started representing GB on Sportdata online This was a great experience, making friends all over the world and keeping active in karate. I competed every week and after 46 tournament wins (Gold), 21 Silver, 20 Bronze and 167 individual rounds won, I earned the status of World ranked number 1 for U14 in e Kata. This was the best experience ever to compete all over the world virtually and to be marked by international judges.
Now competitions are live and travelling is allowed, I would like your support for travelling and earning a live world ranking. Karate, unfortunately, receives no funding and although everyone around me is making sacrifices, it is not enough to allow me to go to all these international competitions. I am looking for support to attend the next 4 Youth League competitions this year which will give me ranking points. They will be in Limassol, Cyprus in April, Porec, Croatia in July, Istanbul, Turkey in September and Venice, Italy in December. If I am successful in these competitions, I may be selected to represent England at the world championship in October. There is a long road and a steep learning curve ahead of me. Thank you if you feel you can help me on this journey.
I love karate but success does not come without a lot of sacrifices. I train for an hour before school and two hours after school. A normal day starts at 6.30 with a run and core exercises. I then have a kata lesson online and do an extra hour of practice. As a result of this (and growing) , I am always hungry! I have to be careful as I am gluten, dairy and refined sugar intolerant too.
During lockdown, I didn't stop and started representing GB on Sportdata online This was a great experience, making friends all over the world and keeping active in karate. I competed every week and after 46 tournament wins (Gold), 21 Silver, 20 Bronze and 167 individual rounds won, I earned the status of World ranked number 1 for U14 in e Kata. This was the best experience ever to compete all over the world virtually and to be marked by international judges.
Now competitions are live and travelling is allowed, I would like your support for travelling and earning a live world ranking. Karate, unfortunately, receives no funding and although everyone around me is making sacrifices, it is not enough to allow me to go to all these international competitions. I am looking for support to attend the next 4 Youth League competitions this year which will give me ranking points. They will be in Limassol, Cyprus in April, Porec, Croatia in July, Istanbul, Turkey in September and Venice, Italy in December. If I am successful in these competitions, I may be selected to represent England at the world championship in October. There is a long road and a steep learning curve ahead of me. Thank you if you feel you can help me on this journey.
Organizer and beneficiary
Thomas Klemz
Organizer
England
Anne Klemz
Beneficiary