Last weekend over 50 Club Deportivo Washinkai Karate students celebrated the 10th anniversary of the club with a gala dinner at Castello restaurant in Javea. Guest of honour was John Crosby ex head of Xabia International College.
In 2001, Club president Ray Sweeney was invited by John to open the first Washinkai Karate in XIC. Since then, from the six students who started on that first day, Washinkai has grown to be the largest karate club in the Valencian Community with over 170 students. Incredibly, four of those first few students went on to become black belts.
Special guests invited to the dinner were Jose Chulvi Mayor of Javea, Juan Louis Cardona Javea Sports Councillor, JJ Torrecillas European Taijitsu Champion, Andres Alarcon Carrasco Technical Director of San Juan Shotokan Karate and Paco Gonzalez Saiz vice president of the Valencian Karate Federation. Jose Chulvi presented Ray Sweeney with an 18k hand-made gold ring inscribed with Washinkai 10thAnniversary in Japanese script.
The club has created 24 black belts to date who, despite being scattered around the world, still return to the club and continue to train to this day.
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