Lucas strikes gold six times

LUCAS O’Donnell enjoyed another weekend of success at the Cross Border Championship in Burnfoot, County Donegal where he, and his North West Shotokan Karate Club colleagues excelled on the mats.

The morning started with Lucas and his father Eathan taking to the mats in the Experienced Parent and Child kata category – sealing the first gold of the day.

Up next was Individual Kata Age 11-12 – two rounds, two different own grade katas. After the first round Lucas was leading and his second round kata was strong and sharp, which was enough to make sure he got his second gold of the day.

Lucas then stepped up into the Age 13 Individual Kata and just like earlier in the morning, two rounds and two different Brown belt katas resulted in the same outcome, another gold.

Lucas then moved from kata to kumite and first up was the Age 13 Individual Kumite category and despite being one of the smallest and youngest competitors, he put on a show! He earned an Ippon in his first fight, followed by another Ippon and two Wazaris later with 30 seconds left on the clock Lucas sealed his win with a 6-1 scoreline.

Onwards to fight number two where it took Lucas just 57 seconds to win the fight with a 7-0 scoreline – securing him a spot in the semi finals.

Up next was a fa strong, sharp hard hitting fighter who opened the scoring after 20 seconds. But like he’s trained hard to do Lucas refocused and just seven seconds later he found his equaliser. Lucas took a few sore knocks in this fight but up he got and got on with it each time.

With the fight at 1-1 and one minute 21 seconds remaining Lucas took one hard hit too many and his opponent received his 3rd warning and was disqualified allowing Lucas to progress to the finals.

The hard knocks continued in the final and at one point his white mouth guard was red with the blood streaming from his lip but not once did he give up. The focus and determination Lucas is known for was there. After almost a minute of fighting the scoreline was still 0-0 however a left leg to his opponents head was rewarded with an Ippon score and Lucas was 2-0 up.

Both fighters gave it there all and with just two seconds left on the clock it was 3-1 in Lucas’ favour and with one second to go the left leg was up again, another Ippon and a final scoreline of 5-1 for Lucas for another gold medal.

He then took part in the Age 11-12 Kumite category.

In his first fight, with less than a minute gone he was 3-nil up. He eventually won the fight 4-nil. His second fight lasted only nine seconds – another 4-nil under his belt. Next up was the finals and he put up a good fight 1-nil to Lucas, then 1-1 then 2-1 to Lucas with approximately 40 seconds on the clock when unfortunately Lucas kicked his opponent too hard in the head and the medics deemed him unfit to continue. Sadly this resulted in a straight disqualification for Lucas and it was a silver medal in the Age 11-12 Individual Kumite.

Lucas then teamed up young Darragh from Kazoku in the Team Kumite and they triumphed through two very tough fights to earn a sixth gold of the day for the Strabane youngster.

Lucas will be back in action at the Carlow International Event on 1st/2nd October.