Raiding the capital: Medal haul for martial arts school

returned later that night. It was a 15-hour day, but it was well worth it,” he said.

At 48, Brooks was the oldest SMAC fighter taking to the mat while the youngest was just five.

Ninety-four! That’s the number of medals students from Shaolin Martial Arts Centre (SMAC) took home at an International Sports Karate Association (ISKA) tournament in Canberra recently.

The Werrington County-based centre, which has been in operation for seven years, sent 31 students to compete in the Battle of Canberra, with all but one taking home a medal.

The students, ranging in age

“There were 16 people competing for the first time in Canberra, but the rest of the team have been competing for six months or more. I, myself, have been competing since 1985 and I just love it, I love the buzz. For me, it’s not about winning, it’s seeing the students beat their goals. I was really happy for everyone.”

“We even had mums competing for the first time. Their kids had been competing for a while and these mums decided to step up and jump in, I was really proud of them,” Brooks said.

“I think there was one kid that didn’t medal and that was, quite simply, because it was his first tournament, and he was in divi- sions with 16 kids involved. He competed in the largest division in his first tournament, and he still did himself very proud.”

The Battle of Canberra was the sixth ISKA tournament of the year with loads more set down for the remainder of 2023.

Brooks said to sit in third place on the ISKA rankings so far is a monumental achievement for Shaolin Martial Arts Centre.

“We are coming third overall for the year out of all the teams that compete in ISKA,” he said.

“We are smaller than some of the bigger schools… we average