Donegal karate stars Zara and Caitlin win gold at World Championships

North West Shotokan Karate members Zara Thompson and Caitlin Sweeney bagged gold medals at the WUKF World Championships. Thompson and Sweeney landed gold in the junior 18-20 team rotation sanbon section in Cluj-Napoca in Romania. They were joined in the team by Beibhinn McCole and Lily Sheeran. The Irish girls defeated England 9-3 in the final having beaten Romania 7-3 in the semi-final. They opened up with a win over Italy, while England overcame another Romanian team and teh USA to make the decider. Twin Towns teen Thompson and Sweeney, from Crossroads, were top of the podium with the Irish team on a memorable championships for the North West Shotokan Karate Club - which is based in the CAKE Centre in Killygordon. In the junior 18-20 kumite team sanbon section, the same Irish quartet lost out to Italy. Sweeney took silver in the U21 under-55kgs section. Sweeney lost out to Ariana Iva from Romania after defeating Kayin Bautista from USA in her semi-final having beaten Andreea Ioana Grigore of Romania in the quarter-finals. North West Shotokan Karate Club coach Eathan O’Donnell took bronze in the Veterans U75kgs grade while his son Lucas O’Donnell landed an individual U18 U65kgs bronze and he was part of the Irish team that won gold in the U21 team rotation alongside PJ Moynihan and Emmet Cusack.