International silver for Vale Karate's Kloe (From Barry And District News)

International silver for Vale Karate's Kloe

7:30am Thursday 25th June 2009

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VALE Karate’s Kloe Christoforato, despite having only celebrated her ninth birthday in May, is following in the footsteps of her hugely successful squad mates and already finding remarkable success.

Last Saturday she was a member of the Vale Karate squad which travelled to Salzburg for the Austrian Junior Open.

With 21 countries in attendance, the event was by far the biggest she has attended, yet her composure never faltered.

Having a bye in the first round, she went on to beat two competitors from the host country Austria, to reach the semi-final. There she beat a Slovenian to reach the final.

A close match saw two of the three judges award the match to her opponent, leaving Kloe with a well deserved silver medal.

Kloe began training in karate as a four-year-old in 2004, making little progress at first.

Her training lapsed until Vale Karate began their ‘Tigers’ classes for 4-7 year-olds in March, 2005.

Since then she has come on in leaps and bounds, impressing spectators and officials alike up and down the country with her prodigious talent.

She needed special permission to enter the Scottish international Open of 2006, as she was a year too young to enter the 7-9 year event.

Given the all-clear, she beat the best eight and nine-year-olds the host country had to offer to take the title.

The highlight of her young career to date, however, was probably winning this year’s Welsh Championships Under 10 Kata title.

As do the rest of Vale Karate’s successful squad, Kloe’s diary has some exciting events coming up.

After recently joining the rest of the squad for an exclusive training weekend with British Kata number one and Assistant English coach Jon Mottram, next month she will be travelling to Cheshunt with the Vale Karate Kata squad to train with the European and World Kata champion Luca Valdesi.

In August the main aim will be the Welsh Youth Open, before heading up to Edinburgh in September for the British Championships.

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