New Forest karate youngster flies high on international stage

SOUTHERN England Karate Federation (SEKF) athlete Carla Rudkin-Guillen has placed fifth out of 95 athletes in the newly-devised online international E-Kata championships.

Carla, who regularly trains in New Milton and Lymington at SEKF, has been training non- stop at home since 20th March. With fitness centres shut due to the coronavirus outbreak, Carla has adapted to the situation by performing her routine in her parents’ living room while her competitors have been able to use private dojos.

She uploaded her video to an independent panel of referees from across the world. The 13-year-old then needed to wait 24 hours to see whether she made the next round due to the time difference.

After making it through, Carla was ranked fifth in the world in the U14 category after she accumulated 1270 points. France’s Mai-Linh Bui won the event with 3260 points while second place went to Italy’s Asia Gruppioni with 1900 points. Hungary’s Eszter Takacs finished third with 1865 points and Sima Celo from Austria came fourth.

It has been already an impressive year for the New Forest star under the guidance of her father Collin Rudkin who is a sixth-dan sensei at SEKF.

She claimed two gold medals for England in the Berlin International Open Kata Championships and now has one eye on the 2022 Junior Olympics in Dakar, Senegal.