2009 Halberg Awards
Capping an amazing year of competition for the young Chris Rahardja was the news the out of 39 nominations in the emerging talent catagory he had been selected in the top four as a finalist. The first Karate exponent to gain the honour it has proved to be an exciting time for the 17 year old.
Results that led to Chris's nomination:
Yokohama Open 08 Gold in the senior Kata division
Oceania 08 Individual Kumite 16/17yrs Gold
Individual Kata 16/17yrs Gold
Individual Kata Senior Silver
Team Kumite 16/17yrs Gold
Oceania Kata Gold in 04, 06 and 08 three kata gold in a row is a first for a New Zealand Competitor
06 and 08 gold in individual kumite (not selected for kumite in 04)
WKF Senior World Champs 5= in Kata, the first New Zealand Male past the first round since 1977 and only the 3rd Kiwi to be in a medal match at a senior worlds ever.
Our congratulations to Chris.
On the 3rd of February Chris spent the beginning of the evening rubbing shoulders with some of the Legends of NZ sport (and taking photos!)being mistaken for Danny Lee led to some great conversations including some training advice from Sir Murray Halberg!
Talking to Valerie Villi's husband, Bertrand, earlier in the evening we found out that he is New Caledonian and has a cousin that also does Karate. Imagine our surprise when it turned out that his cousin was Min Dak, the French competitor who Chris versed in the bronze medal match in Tokyo!
The Karate connections continued throughout the evening when we found ourselves at table 20 were to our surprise we were seated with Valerie, her Husband, Bertrand, Kirsten Hellier and her husband , Valerie's manager Nick, Ruth Aitken and her husband Grant.
Kirsten (Valerie's coach) has a daughter who is a dan grade with sensei Dennis May of Goju Ryu and has worked with some of NZ top female kata competitors Andrea Annacan and Ashley Old. Grant and his sons have also been studying karate for many years!
Apart from the obvious (the excitement of being at the table that collected 3 awards including the supreme sportsperson) it was an absolute pleasure to spend the evening with such a great group of people that helped make a great night exceptional.
