The club sent two junior students to the titles and both came away with medals.
Reece Carnegie claimed first in his full contact fight, earning a gold medal, while fellow member Hayden Shawcross took bronze in his non-contact division.
Club sensei Lee Hicks said Kyokushin was typically a discipline focused on full-contact, with Shawcross doing well to manage the intense scrutiny of the non-contact event.
“In our game it’s quite easy to get disqualified in (non-contact), because we don't train for it that much,” he said.
“We actually train more full contact than that.”
The non-contact division involves demonstration of offensive and defensive form and is scored in an elimination format, with Shawcross fighting through several rounds of competition to finish third.
The contact division is scored by points on successful hits and defences, with competitors padded up at Carnegie’s age level.
Hicks said an event like this was a key milestone on the way to more elite competition.
“It's a stepping stone into the Australian titles or any titles you want to fight in and also overseas as well,” he said.
“You can go anywhere with what we do, it’s worldwide.”
Carnegie was looking to enter further competitions in July but is nursing an injury, meaning the school has no future events planned.
Hicks said his students typically attended two to three competitions per year at their own discretion.
The school’s sensei, a third dan black belt, has been running karate in Rochester for 18 years.
“It teaches you respect and discipline and I think the way the world’s going, a lot of that’s disappearing and it’s not good,” he said.
“You hear in sport a lot of talk at each other, trash talk.
“We don’t do any of that, you don’t do that with us.
“It’s about putting your head down, your bum up and working really hard and we all treat each other equally.
“There’s no participation award. If you’re going to do well at this, you’ve got to work really hard to do well.”
The school runs classes on Mondays at 46 Platypus Rd, Rochester, with new students welcome to attend for a free first session.
In the summer, a junior specific class is held from 4.15pm to 5pm, but in the winter months only the main class is active from 5.30pm to 7pm.
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