Team Purple Dragon Cayman left on Monday for the Purple Dragon World Karate Championships in Trinidad, which take place July 17th-19th 2015, with a big boost from Cayman National who pledged their support as title sponsor of the Team’s bid to compete at an international level.

The World Championships take place in Trinidad every 5 years and attracts upwards to 1,000 competitors from around the world.

It is an extremely important goal that the Dojo and students have been working towards for months. In recent weeks they have been training for up to 6 hours a day for 7 days a week, under the direction of Sensei Atonio Thompson, and supported by other Sensei’s and Instructors.

With a large team from Cayman competing this year, fundraising was very important and Sensei Floyd Baptiste, who runs the Cayman dojo, thanked all sponsors and volunteers for their assistance and in particularly Cayman National for stepping up as Title Sponsor.

As well as training hard, all competitors have been involved in fundraising for the trip which included a raffle, a fun run sponsored by Williams2 and a Karate Showcase held at the ARC in Camana Bay.

“The support of the local community as sponsors, at the fun run, raffle and showcase has been very motivating for the Cayman Islands team travelling to compete at this exciting event. The students are all looking forward to representing the Cayman Islands and bringing home as many medals as possible,” he said.

He added, “When we competed in this event in 2010, we did very well and brought home several medals. This time we hope to do even better, and make our Purple Dragon Cayman friends and family, and the wider community, very proud”.

There are over 35 competitors and supporters travelling to the Championship, with competitors ranging from under 10 to over 50, both male and female. They will be competing in a variety of categories including sparring, katas, weapons, self defense and the highly anticipated team demo.

As well as Cayman National and Williams2, Purple Dragon Cayman also received support from DART, Tower, RBC, Walkers, DMS and Sprint.

For more information visit www.purpledragon.ky or contact [email protected].