This past weekend Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karate Namibia once again made history by hosting its first ever Online National Grading! The grading which was attended by 108 Karateka officially marks the largest virtual karate event to be hosted in the Country!
Okinawa Goju-Ryu Karate Namibia and it’s students are no strangers to online training, having first started with virtual training back in 2020 after the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. For the past month, OGKN has once again opted to take it’s classes online for the safety of it’s member’s and to help curve the increasing spread of the virus. “We will always do our best to prioritize the health and safety of our members whilst doing our best to maintain the high level of training we are known for.”- Sensei Carl van der Merwe
With the first National Grading of the year set to take place at the end of June, OGKN decided to take on the challenge of hosting the event on a strictly online basis. Members from all three of dojo’s (Honbu, Shinto and Walvis Bay), logged on from home to perform their grading examinations. Most notably, the event was also attended internationally, with three members logging on to grade all the way from the United States of America.
Amongst the 108 karateka who graded OGKN is also proud to announce the following additions to their Black Belt Ranks:
Reino Hansen – 2nd Dan
Jaco Steyn – 1st Dan
Albert-John Rickerts – 1st Dan
Joshua Kunneke – 1st Dan
“I am tremendously proud of our new black belts, and all of the karateka who passed their gradings this weekend! The primary goal of our national grading has always been to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our students. Although we could not get together in person this time, we still wanted the students to have the same grading examination experience as they normally would. We managed to achieve this goal! I would like to extend a special thank you to all the parents and families who helped make the event possible! Domo Arigato.” – Sensei Carl van der Merwe