Nominations for the 2016 Halberg awards have been named with Fushin Ryu student Richard Rahardja making the group in Emerging talent. We are hoping that he can become only the 2nd Karate competitor to ever make the finals he follows in the footsteps of his brother Chris who was a finalist in 2009.

This tops off an amazing year for Richard. Coming back from back surgery and many losses on the mat he fought his mental and physical demons to rack up some great results including winning the Australian Open Junior Kata division while also placing 3rd in the senior division, winning the Junior kata division at the Sugihara Cup, as well as winning the Sporting achievement of the year at the FRK prize giving and becoming only the 4th New Zealander to medal at a WKF world event in placing 3rd at the Junior World Championships in Indonesia. All this while preparing / studying for a career in medicine! where he hopes to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and sister.

We wish Richard the best of luck for the awards! congratulations again on an amazing achievement.